Executive Protection Archives - Page 3 of 6

Advice for finding work in Executive Protection

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of mentorships for current and retired law enforcement officers looking to transition into private sector executive protection roles. This is primarily due to my position as the head of the Law Enforcement/Military Liaison committee in the ASIS Executive Protection Community, of which our very own Jerry Heying is the Chair of that community. Also, it’s because I’ve made that transition myself. After spending almost 27 years working for the California Highway Patrol, I was lucky enough to retire and almost immediately find a job as a corporate executive protection manager. A lot of my former colleagues, nearing retirement, reach out to me for advice, which I happily do. I do it for LEO, Military, my fellow NLA members, or any decent person that is considering this line of work. We need good people in this business.

Here’s the advice I share. I believe it’s universally applicable to all candidates, not just LEO or Military.

Find Your Way

I always wanted to be a policeman (law enforcement officer was not even a title back then). I had all the cop toys and guns, watched all the cop tv shows, played cops and robbers with my friends. I never wavered. Never wanted to be anything else. All that changed on November 22, 1963.

I was 7. The whole world changed that day. Our President had been assassinated. I watched every one of the 3 or 4 tv stations we had back then flipped the channels by hand. I was devastated and fascinated by the whole thing. I learned what a Secret Service agent was and what they did and decided that was the kind of cop I wanted to be. I knew they were cops because their cars had red lights.

Mindset is Everything

Starting with a personal experience that changed how I look at networking and building your resume. I took a volunteer assignment back in 2010 with Black Ice Security in the Virginia area. They have been supporting the GI Film Festival for years providing volunteer pro bono EP support. I was working in the Indiana area for a Healthcare company and had wrapped up and headed to Washington DC to support the Film Festival. People were like you drove from where! Shortly after that detail I was asked to provide support for worst environmental disaster our country has ever seen. When they asked for additional staffing support for that detail and if I knew anyone who would be good guess where I went? I asked 2 agents from the pro bono detail I had just worked. Both agents were assigned to that team for almost 2 years. Working that pro bono assignment changed how I look at everything in my field today when it comes to developing your network.

Dr. HHA Cooper

~ A Life Remembered

When I was asked to write a memoir for Dr. Cooper, I was both honored and baffled. Honored to be considered worthy of this project. Baffled by the task of distilling such a “larger than life” personality down to a short article. What follows is my collection of thoughts about the good doctor.

To illustrate the veracity of the “larger than life” comment here is a brief bio from a Dr. Cooper article entitled Terrorism and Espionage in the Middle East published by Mellen Press:

Dr. H.H.A. Cooper is president of Nuevevidas International, Inc., a Texas Consulting company specializing in safety and survival issues. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses at The University of Texas at Dallas. He directed the National Advisory Committee Task Force on Disorders and Terrorism, 1974-1977, and was the Director of Criminal Law Education and Research Center (CLEAR) and Deputy Director of the Center of Forensic Psychiatry of New York University. Dr. Cooper is the author of many works dealing with terrorism and other manifestations of extraordinary violence.