For those times when you just need to speak with a HUMAN

Have you ever been fed up with countless prompts and a bored sounding robotic voice on the other end of your phone?

Our friends at KRE Security/Investigations in PA recently shared with us a short cut to get through to a human operator when you don't have the patience for those never-ending instructions.

Some of these numbers take you directly to a live person (imagine that!), while others tell you the secret handshakes and whispers to say in order to save yourself a bundle of time.

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Fast thinking hostage husband saves day and family!

It's so refreshing to hear good news when it comes to a hostage situation. The Baltimore Examiner discusses the recent kidnapping ordeal of a Baltimore bank manager and her family.

Thanks to the quick reaction of the manager's husband who was forced by the hostage takers to drive them in his car, the suspects were arrested by a State Trooper when he noticed the driver (deliberately) weaving back and forth on the road, causing the car to be pulled over on a traffic stop.

This is the kind of quick thinking that saves lives and this gentleman is to be commended for bringing this dangerous situation to a successful conclusion without shots being fired.

That is the reason why we are nominating him for "The Bulletproof Blog Person of the year" award for 2008. If you would like to cast a vote or nominate someone else to be a recipient, please write in to us by midnight on Wednesday, the 31st of December.

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Be careful when hiring security for the Inauguration

I've been hearing and reading about security people looking to work in Washington D.C. for the Inauguration. Those looking to protect clients would be well advised to think twice.

The D.C. traffic is quite hateful at the best of times. How will non-locals be expected to negotiate roads and routes that have been closed and detoured?

One major concern for anyone looking to come to work in the area should be the local laws. Will you be properly licensed and insured to work in the area? Won't you be a liability to the client if you are not?

In an earlier posting we discussed compromising one's integrity and ethics. How is it possible to work in an ethical manner if one works illegally? Since every hotel in the District of Columbia is said to be sold out, many clients will travel in from Maryland or Virginia.

In order to protect a client in the Commonwealth of Virginia, one must be registered as a Personal Protection Specialist with the Department of Criminal Justice Services. Failure to hold a registration while engaging in executive protection is a criminal offense - punishable by a $2000 fine and/or 12 months in jail.

Clients: For your safety and liability sake, insist on using personnel who are employed by licensed security companies and steer clear of freelancers. If something goes wrong or if their status is ever challenged, it could not only cause you embarrassment, but could lead to a criminal prosecution.

There will be a lot of amateurs looking to "cut their teeth" in January. The wise will leave it to the professionals.

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Tampa Detectives Fired for Stealing Time

St. Petersburg Times staff writer,Colleen Jenkins, reported Friday on four Tampa Police Detectives who were fired (3 were able to retire with pensions intact - only the junior detective actually lost her job)for clocking off work early but charging their department for working a full week.

There are sure to be those who sypathize with the disgraced officers as there will be others who will feel that they got off lightly. The Asst. Police Chief summed it up quite well when he stated; "They lost their way".

I happen to know better than most how he feels after discovering his officers were cheating on the hours they worked - or more appropriately - failed to work. I recently fired an employee who left work after a couple of hours and then sent in a timesheet the next day claiming to have worked the full shift.

The Tampa Asst. Police Chief shares my view when he states; "Once you compromise your integrity in these cases, there's no recovery". My instructors and I emphasize this very point to every student who goes through our various training programs.

Our fired ex-employee failed to understand this. He went so far as to file a complaint with the Department of Labor when we refused to pay him for the hours that he did NOT work. At least the Tampa detectives appeared to know when the game was up.

A word of advice to employers: An employee who leaves an hour early (or spends hours on the internet or on the phone with their friends for that matter)can cheat the company out of significant amounts over the long term. Secondly, make sure when you decide to terminate a thieving employee that you have the case fully investigated. That is what we did and what the Tampa Police did.

It's a shame that some people are so greedy that they don't realize when they are well off. Like the Tapma Police Department, we have no time for those who compromise their integrity.

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Secret Service caught off-guard by "flying shoes"

Thankfully last week's incident in Baghdad was more embarrassing than anything else. Like the Bill Gates cream pie incident in Belgium some years ago, it could have been much worse.

No matter what one may think of the way President Bush handled the war in Iraq, the journalists there have done themselves no favor in the eyes of the world. Although many of us in security probably think the Secret Service could have reacted better and faster, few would have considered a roomfull of journalists to have been a threat.

Speaking of the Secret Service, one wonders why they did not have an agent(s)sitting at the front facing towards the crowd? The other question that causes so much bewilderment is; "why did the first shoe, which nearly made contact, not draw any response from any of the President's protectors?

The shoe-thrower even had time to fling his other shoe without an immediate response from the Secret Service. The Iraqi Prime Minister, Al-Maliki did a better job of protecting President Bush than the "men in black". I can only imagine what must be going through President elect Obama's mind this week.

We just concluded an intense week-long Executive Protection training class on the West Coast where we cautioned the agents-in-training about always being on their guard and never losing focus of the person(s) they are protecting. There can be no time for day-dreaming in this profession.

For those of you who look upon the incident as "amusing" and think that no harm was done, cast your mind back to the so-called Press conference in Afghanistan some years ago when a suicide bomber posing as a journalist smuggled explosives inside a camera and blew up Massood, the man who many thought was destined to become the future President of Afghanistan.

Those fulfilling the role of Protector can not afford to let down their guard when "on the job". History has taught us that assasinations take mere seconds to carry out. The assassin only has to get it right once, the protectors have to get it right every time.

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The importance of getting to the airport in time

I know. This speaks for itself. It just might help somebody if it goes out as a reminder for everybody, but especially to those who may like to "cut it close" when checking in for a flight....

Thankfully, I practice what I preach and always aim to check-in for international flights three to four hours ahead. I don't feel comfortable with less than two hours for a domestic flight.

Fortunately, I am now sitting relaxed in San Diego airport awaiting to board my flight for D.C. with plenty of time to spare. This might not have been the case though had I not left my hotel nearly four hours before my flight was scheduled to depart.

We just finished up a week of training new West Coast Executive Protection agents and I was returning one of the three rental vehicles we had used during the week. My vehicle was taken in and a receipt issued in around 15 minutes.

The problem arose when I attempted to make sure that all of the vehicles had been charged to the same credit card. One of the vehicles were "missing". The young lady assured me that the car could not be located nor could the keys, despite the fact that one of my instructors had returned it a couple of hours earlier.

In turn, I assured her that there was no chance he had attempted to bring it with him. I watched shuttle buses come and go to the airport as the folks at Enterprise continued to assure me that the car had truely disappeared. Eat your heart out Chris Angel.

Eventually I just had to leave. The confused rep told me that he would call me in 15minutes when the car had been found (how did he know it wuld take 15 minutes?). Three hours later and he still has not called.

Good thing I had not been rushing to catch a flight.

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Michael Chertoff had illegals cleaning his house - maybe Bill and Hillary did too

I'm not sure whether it is really funny or really sad to discover that the Head of Homeland Security had illegal aliens cleaning his house.

One would nearly think that at some point in time that the law of "lessons learned" would apply. You would have thought that Mr. Chertoff's would-be predecessor had caused enough embarrassment to the Department when he was forced to give back the job after it was discovered he had employed an illegal alien as an au-pair.

The Washington Post article raises an interesting question - did Bill and Hillary Clinton also use illegal house cleaners? Afterall, they used the same company that cleaned the Chertoff house. I am sure that the Secret Service is none too happy about the fact that they had checked the I.D.s of the illegal aliens weekly for 4 years.

Let us at least hope that the head of Homeland Security did not have any sensitive files laying around his home in Maryland when it was being visited every week by illegals who had the full run of his home and probably unhindered access.

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50% of NFL players might own guns, but how many are carrying them around?

It was interesting to read this article by the Houston Chronicle, which began with the recent Plaxico Burress case.

Fortunately, it would seem that most people realize that Burress' idiotic act is not something that can be condoned. Hopefully Mr. Burress is not expecting any sympathy for his stupidity. There's not really any other way to call an act that involved; a)being stupid enough to shoot himself, b)carrying a gun into a bar and c)carrying a gun in the FIRST PLACE in one of the most restricted cities in the U.S.A. for gun possession.

Fortunately for the vistors to that establishment, no innocent bystander was shot. The article talks about NFL players being targets of opportunity because of their fame and wealth and the fact that some have been held at gunpoint in their homes.

That is no reason to break the law. Many of the professional athletes quoted in the article appear to favor being armed. My question to them is why? I would ask the same thing from the owner of the Texans, Bob McNair who states that while his team discourages players from carrying guns, they do provide players with instructions should they chose to do so.

I hope Mr. McNair's strange policy works for him but I think he is leaving himself wide open for future legal action sould one of his players accidently shoot or kill an innocent person because "they had been provided with instruction" and thereby given the green light by the team itself.

Folks, it's called; "Hiring Security". It is understandable if you feel threatened. It is understandable that you are a target. It is fortunate that when you earn tens of millions of dollars, you can afford to hire a professional to keep you safe. A professional who does this for a living and will not embarrass you on the evening news for shooting themselves.

The very fact that Plaxico Burress did what he did shows that he should never have had a gun - even if it had been legal for him to do so. I wonder what "instruction" he had received regarding it's use?

My message to the NFL and all professional athletes is simple; "Don't be a Plaxico". Just like when you want to fly from California to Washington D.C., you allow a professional pilot take you there. Just because you may own your own plane, does not qualify you to fly it.

You guys carry the ball and we'll carry the guns. It's safer and more entertaining that way.

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