Here’s 5 reasons why families hire close protection; Safety, Security, Lifestyle, Risk Mitigation and Privacy. ESS – Real security for the real world today.
Why Families Hire Close Protection
To the average person watching TV or a Hollywood movie, close protection is often seen as a “perk” of the “rich and famous”.
It’s not.
No one grows up aspiring to hire close protection agents.
Here are the reasons why families hire close protection.
Safety
Often, we use safety and security as synonyms. “Did you arrive at your destination safe and secure?” Safety refers to the “state” of being free of physical harm, while security refers to the “process” of providing the state of safety.
And for most folks, locking the doors and keeping your wits about you provides an environment that fosters safety.
Until it doesn’t.
For high net worth individuals and families, there are many ways to provide that “state” of safety for yourself and your family. Gated communities, security systems, and fencing are some ways that help protect.
Until they don’t.
And for some, they understand that it makes sense to “cure” their safety once it’s been breached. While others take a proactive preventative approach.
And what about outside the home? That’s when you are most vulnerable . That fancy home security system doesn’t protect you when traveling. or when your children go to school.
And that’s the most common reason why families hire close protection. To maintain a state of safety outside the home.
Security
The “process” of security is all around us. Bank guards, bar bouncers, lobby security guards, even school crossing guards remind us about this process every day.
Why do families hire close protection? We can’t speak for other firms, but here at ESS, it’s not about getting a big, intimidating fellow to walk around with you. It’s about threat analysis and risk mitigation. Those are the first steps needed to begin the “process” of providing safety to individuals and families.
Risk Mitigation
Again, the starting point for any serious risk mitigation efforts is a professional threat analysis. Unless you fully comprehend the threats facing you as well as your vulnerabilities to these identified threats, you have no way of assessing your risk. Consequently, you’ll have no understanding how to mitigate them.
When you understand and identify the threats, then add in your vulnerability (exposure), you can then begin to formulate a balanced risk mitigation plan.
Lifestyle
For executives, sports figures, celebrities, politicians and other high net worth individuals the “cost” of loss of freedom reaches a point where it needs “balance”. The tipping point comes when they realize that they can no longer maintain their preferred lifestyle without professional close security. Because with loss of freedom, comes loss of privacy.
Privacy
Whether they’ve made their fortune in high profile fields such as the entertainment industry, or sports, or are powerful players in closely-scrutinized industries or any other reason, families and individuals want privacy. And while “fame” might be seen by some as a “perk”, the bottom line is the more well-known a person or family member is, the more likely they are to be approached by strangers.
And in almost every case, these types of interactions are unwanted. These invasions of privacy can have a threat level that ranges from negligible to imminent. They include troublesome but basically harmless exchanges with strangers and they can also be hostile. And it’s these threats that can then become crimes (assault, stalking, harassment, kidnapping).
ESS Global provides individual and family close protection services in Tampa, throughout Florida and the US, as well as in over 60 countries worldwide.
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