Executive Protection and the New Normal of a World with Covid-19: Why We Need More Than Program Tweaks

In order to keep our clients safe, happy and productive, executive protection professionals have always had to respond and adapt to major events and trends. As the world now faces the sobering consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak, the executive protection industry will once again have to evolve to stay relevant. Some of these changes will be superficial. Some will be so profound that they could be industry game changers.

Some events are so significant that they cause long-lasting security reactions which may not actually mitigate risk. Some trends are so widespread that their impact raises fewer alarms than they should. It’s our job to understand the difference between real and perceived risk – and to deal with both.

The events that took place within a few hours on September 11, 2001, resulted in massive disruptions with long-lasting security implications, as did the financial crisis that stretched over 2007-2009. Less suddenly but just as unrelentingly, the rise of globalization and social media usage have had other enormous consequences for personal protection, as have digitalization, AI, and the Internet of Things.

All of these events and trends impact risk, both real and perceived, and must therefore also influence risk mitigation practices such as executive protection. On their own, each presents specific threats and reveals new vulnerabilities. Together, they add to the dynamic complexity of the real world in which our clients live and work – and where we are tasked with protecting lives, privacy, and reputations. The challenge is knowing how to prioritize this ever-changing mix of risks – and figuring out how to mitigate them in the best way possible.

Did the risk of a terror attack increase after 9/11? Contrary to popular perceptions, not really. In most countries, the risk actually fell. For most principals, the risk of injury in a car accident or a home invasion is still far more probable than the risk of being a terrorist victim.

Conversely, how could something as common as social media increase a person’s risk? Well, for one thing, social media multiplies prominence, a key indicator for assassinations, as revealed in the Exceptional Case Study Project conducted by the U.S. Secret Service. For another, social media use can dramatically increase time and place predictability, making it way easier for bad guys to do bad things to good people.

What about COVID-19 and risk mitigation? Will we look back at this in a few years and say, phew, that was much ado about nothing? Or will we look back on Q1 2020 as the beginning of a new era for executive protection? We don’t really know. We haven’t suddenly picked up PhDs in epidemiology so we can second-guess all the scientists. We stick to the facts.

We know that we have to take the COVID-19 outbreak seriously. It already has had and will have huge health and economic consequences for billions of people around the world, and it might be a game changer for the thousands of us who work in the EP industry.

The COVID-19 outbreak adds a new dimension of complexity to the practice and business of executive protection – as well as new demands, threats, and opportunities.

Do we simply tweak existing programs to deal with the new situation? Or do we need some completely new approaches?

Although we all look back longingly to the good old days when everything was business as usual, we know there’s no going back to a world unaffected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Even now, as countries and regions around the world are cautiously reducing lockdowns, it’s clear that not all of the societal shifts brought on by the pandemic will go away anytime soon.

The executive protection industry doesn’t live in a bubble, and things will change for us, too. There have already been and there will definitely be more program tweaks. There could be some even bigger shifts, too. Let’s take a look at some of these.

Hygiene should always have been a permanent feature of any executive protection SOP, and it will be from now on. How will our protective role change to adapt?

Alongside other predictable security risks, from now on the operational responsibilities of EP teams will include mitigating the client’s risk of viral infection. Hasn’t it always been on us to do this? Yes, if you think about it. No, if we’re honest about it.

We have always known about the importance of personal hygiene to reduce contagion, but until a few months ago, who among us can claim to have been a religious hand washer and heavy-duty disinfectant wiper? And although it’s never been cool to show up for work coughing and sneezing all over people, how many can raise their right hand and swear they’ve never gone to work with a slight fever – or worse?

Some of the questions executive protection professionals will have to answer in the new normal are obvious, and SOPs have already been or are being tweaked in response. For example:

• How can clients know that the vehicles we provide have been properly sanitized? What kinds of quality assurance procedures should be used?
• How can clients know if our drivers and agents are infected and contagious, or healthy and safe? How will testing be used to confirm the presence of the virus or antibodies? 
• What types of PPE will drivers and agents use, and why?  How can clients know that drivers and agents understand the proper way to use PPE?
• How will clients know that hotel rooms, meeting rooms, restaurants or other venues have been sanitized and are safe for them to be in?

Other issues promise to be trickier, however, and the role that executive protection professionals will play in answering them remains to be defined.

For example, our principals have always met with plenty of people about whom we know relatively little. Some background checks do happen, but if our principal is the CEO of a company, we don’t run checks on all the heads of state, trusted partners, or employees he or she will meet. In most cases, principals and their organizations decide on whom to let into private arrangements with the principal, not us. If there are physical threats, we’re always nearby and can quickly get between the principal and harm’s way. That’s not the case with a virus, however.

We can disinfect a meeting room, but is it our responsibility to control the health status of the people the principal meets? How? What is an acceptable level of contagion risk, and how do we define that? Which contagion mitigation measures should be used where? Plexiglass between people is OK in a supermarket checkout, but how does that look at a major company event? 

Corporate and private travel will change. How will secure travel services adapt?

Right now, very few people are traveling. Whether and when we’ll ever get back to pre-COVID levels remains to be seen, but it doesn’t look likely anytime soon. Still, some travel is essential now, and more will be later.

Executive protection practitioners will have to adapt to changing travel needs. Obviously, the hygiene tweaks mentioned above will also be relevant to secure travel, and SOPs will be adapted accordingly. But what else could change?

Plenty, actually:

• For years, our travel teams have departed from Europe and North America to points all over the globe to do advances and details for our principals. As travel restrictions make this more difficult, we expect to depend more on in-country resources. How will we ensure the same service levels?
• Converted sprinter vans are already used as mobile offices to increase productivity and comfort in slow-moving commutes. Will more executives start to use these for travel, too? What will the consequences be for executive protection?
• Forget about sprinter vans. Why not get a full-sized RV for a first-class road trip? Of course, it’s not going to be an alternative for overseas trips, but for some travel in some geographies (the U.S. East Coast, parts of Europe, etc.), RVs could be a comfortable way to keep people safe, happy and productive for days at a time.
• Finally, instead of moving an executive around a city, what about moving the city to the executive – or, more precisely, somewhere in between? If a CEO can handle 7-10 meetings a day in a city, how many could he or she handle if all meetings took place at the airport? Can we imagine a mobile trailer comfortably kitted out for secure meetings just steps from the corporate aircraft and within the security perimeter of the FBO?

The Executive Protection Technology Officers (EPTO) will need to learn some new tricks. Or work with a new colleague, the Executive Protection Health Officers (EPHO).

Just a few months ago, we wrote a blog about why we believe it’s necessary to train and hire the first EPTOs. Cyber threats are now simply too prevalent for executive protection professionals to ignore or leave to the IT department to take care of.

We believe it’s necessary to have someone on the protective team who understands the various technologies of viral infection mitigation. What kinds of PPE should be used by whom, when? What are the acceptable disinfection protocols? How can we best use available tests, whether for the virus itself or for antibodies?  How can we use UV, chlorine dioxide or other technologies to disinfect rooms?

We recognize the need to get smarter – at a very practical level – about what works and what doesn’t work – and the ROI of these various methods for our clients.