When does a bodyguard need to shoot into a crowd?

A story out of Mumbai,India caught my attention today. A politician's bodyguard shot into a crowd of people and killed a man.


While professional Executive Protection Agents no longer refer to themselves as "bodyguards", if we nonetheless examine that "handle", we can break it down as; "a person who guards (protects) the body of another". If I was tasked with the investigation of this shooting incident in India, one of the very first places I would look at would be the training manuals of those involved. If they were Policemen, I would demand to be allowed to inspect that Department's training guides that were used when training their "bodyguards". Same thing would apply if they belonged to a private company/entity.

I very seriously doubt that I would find any directive anywhere authorizing those assigned to the protective detail to fire haphazzardly into a crowd of people. To me, this suggests that the bodyguard either panicked or was placed in the position without any professional training (most probable explanation). Anyone who has spent more than 15 minutes in E.P. training knows that the responsibility of the Protective Agent(s) is to evacuate their client (Principal). Shooting into crowds of people would be out of place, even in far-fetched Hollywood. I am quite sure that Indian society is nothing near as litigious as it is here in the Western world, but I still suspect that there is a smart lawyer somewhere in India trying to contact the victim's family. I believe the case will be his for the winning.

Ironically, I contactd a company in India a couple of months back with a proposal to train their Executive Protection staff. Without ever hearing a price, they contacted me back and said they were sure they couldn't afford us (eventhough they are one of the largest employers in India). Which makes me wonder, how do you put a price on a human life and what would you consider a fair price to have your people professionally trained so that you were not sued by the family/next of kin of someone killed by one of your employees? By the way, this question can be asked of any employer anywhere in the world who is in the business of either safeguarding their own employees, or protecting the life of others.


In Real Estate it is about; "Location, Location, Location". In security, it is about; "Training, Training, Training". I sincerely hope that many get to know of this incident (including nearly all of the Hollywood stars who allow their Protectors to assault people on a regular basis)and begin to realize the importance of having a professionally trained person taking care of them. Hiring some big guy with a couple of years military experience is not good enough.

That would be like hiring a person for a plastic surgery procedure whose only experience was carving the Thanksgiving turkey. Who'd be the turkey then?

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Training your way out of financial difficulty

My apologies to all of our readers for a lack of recent articles but we have been conducting an intensive Personal Protection training course in the Baltimore area and were concentrating on our new class of Executive Bodyguards.

Many of our students come from Police and Military backgrounds, with some still serving in those capacities. Last Friday, Police Magazine wrote an article about our training and how it was suited to those with a background in security. The editor asked me how attendees utilized the training once they graduated.

There are some who wish to train as Bodyguards as a career change, while others get into the profession as a way of advancing in the field of security and to be able to command a higher salary. That made me think about those who train to become Executive Protection agents so that they can work on a part-time basis. I recently read that many people who find themselves in financial difficulties during these trying times would be able to "stay afloat" if they could find a few hundred extra dollars every month. Of course, their regular jobs aren't going to give them a salary increase all of a sudden, so they must go out and do something to bring in that extra money.

Now there is another reason for people with the ability to further their education and training, not only to land a decent job, but to help them weather the storm during difficult periods like the present economic climate.
What better investment could one make than by investing in themselves?

Now that I'm back, I promise to pay attention to those security related items that might have escaped your attention. If you have anything you'd like to share, please feel free to drop me a line and tell me about it.

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