Essay on "Variables in Personal Security Environment"

Essay 10 pages (3393 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Limits of authority

As much as possible, security personnel must adjust to the principal's convenience. They must avoid interference with the private and/or official functions of the principal (and associated individuals) Protection should not entail unnecessary interference with the liberty of action of the principal. The principal's privacy should be respected always, with every effort made to avoid causing embarrassment or getting in the way of the principal's activities (Dickinson, 2007). Security personnel and measures must, at all times, be as discreet as circumstances allow.

The chief participants in a PS mission are the principal (the person, or persons, that are being guarded), and the security detail, which consists of detail leader (DL), personal security officer (PSO), protective team, an advance team, baggage team, residence watch, and other more specific and/or specialized protective teams as required. Individual PS detail members may be engaged in one or more elements of a particular mission (Nicolas, 2011).

Specific methods to counter influences

Individuals being considered for PS operation-teams must be in top physical and mental condition. They should be reliable, articulate, and intelligent, and should appear presentable. They should be skilled in handling their assigned weapons. Knowledge of unarmed police self-defense tricks is a desirable trait (White, 2011), as is knowledge of the language of the principal, if foreign. The latter, however, is not essential as translators or interpreters generally come along with the host. Candidates should also know about the inherent adversities and dangers linked with the assignment, and must be prepared to sacrifice their own safety in order to protect the principal, at the possible risk of severe personal injury or possibly even death.

Security detail members should be thoroughly knowledgeable regarding protocol requirements, itineraries, and personality information, and should be thoroughly briefed regarding every aspect of the operation. They should be capable of acting swiftly and correctly in emergency situations (CJCSI, 2009). They should be comprehensively experienced in every facet of personal security operations. When the principal is faced with an adverse scenario, the professional, organized and smooth operation carried out by the PS unit will most likely be able to efficiently counteract the threat. Protective forces should be trained well enough that, in spite of the emotion and excitement involved, they will act instinctively and appropriately in case of an emergency. They should be adept in special tactics, and must be capable of protecting the principal whether he is walking or traveling by aircraft, motor vehicle, boat, or train (Abrahamsen & Williams, 2009).The security personnel should effectively guard the principal while participating in public assemblies.

Though difficult, and sometimes impossible to arrange, PS teams should preferably train together, just as special response teams and other small military units do. This is because protection demands collaboration. PS details should function as single units (Engerer, 2011). Every individual belonging to the detail should be absolutely mindful of his/her own reactions and responsibilities, in addition to what he/she can expect from team members.

At present, most personal security training is not suited to team-based training. It is not easy for every Army organization to release 5-7 members all at once, as several other commitments may also need to be met by them. However, once employees are recognized as full- or part-time PS officials, it is advisable for them to train as part of a team, in order to refine their individual abilities, as well as to coordinate teamwork (Krahmann, 2008).

External issues affecting PSO services

An abstract evaluation of different kinds of 'goods' indicates that state security from the threat of foreign military action is a model case of public good. Every sovereign state indiscriminately safeguards all its citizens from the threat of external military invasion (Krahmann, 2008). The security enjoyed by each inhabitant within the nation's territory does not take from the protection granted to every other citizen. The national security outsourcing recourse of nations does not significantly alter the picture. Insofar as PMSCs are employed for contributions to the defense efforts of a country, they have no effect on the non-rival and non-excludable nature of a nation's security (Engerer 2011).

Excludable and marketable security services are increasingly supplied at the cost of non-excludable services supplied for protecting the public at large. This indicates that disparities with regards to security provision, depending on the ability and desire of individuals to afford services which are privately supplied, have been enhanced (Leander, 2010). Moreover, the individualization and fragmentation of security facilities (on account of its excludability), does not allow beneficiaries to split the service cost (Krahmann 2008).

Another negative factor that has been highlighted is the conversion of security to an excludable marketable service (Krahmann, 2008). In this case, the aim of protection has been altered. If security is considered as a common or public good, policing endeavors to prevent threats from appearing. However, if security begins to be considered as a private-party or 'club' good, then policing concentrates on either deterring threat materialization within the sphere of possibility (such as, by hiking the cost of executing the hazard) or upon managing its consequences. Thus, providing protection in the form of an excludable good concentrates on the consequences instead of on the reasons behind insecurity.

It has been explained that private firms seldom engage in threat prevention as it is hard to verify that they have been successful in their efforts (Krahmann, 2008). Moreover, if some individuals can deflect human-initiated risks to their personal security and property, the likelihood that everyone else becomes a target of violence will rise. Thus, lowering policing level as a public good, along with a growing opinion of policing as being a private, or club, good has seriously intensified the insecurity of individuals who cannot afford private security services.

Making 'security' into a commodity produces significant spillover effects that are not considered by the market. First, it relieves states partially from their responsibility of providing protection to citizens (Cockayne, 2009). Indeed, beginning from the 1980's, a few nations such as the United Kingdom have tried to urge private firms and individuals to carry out security tasks, through the use of supposed 'responsibility strategies'. These did not indicate a 'simple unburdening of state responsibilities'. Although these strategies aided the growth of a private protective services sector, they also denote a new type of governance from afar (Abrahamsen & Williams, 2009). Nations took on an extra set of activating and coordinating roles, aimed at developing efficient security organizations.

In this regard, strategies of responsibility attempted to add private services to public policing. The recent substitution, however, of the public security facility with excludable private services has diminished the importance of policing by state authorities (Cockayne, 2009). Both at the trans-national level and at the sub-state level, people are considered to be security service 'consumers', with the freedom to scout markets for the best solution to personal protection. It has been stated that transforming citizens (granted the right to being protected by the state) into consumers indicates that state policing has become alienated and disassociated from matters of equity, justice and democracy (Leander, 2010). Security is progressively becoming depoliticized in this respect. Thus, security has been transformed from being principally a political matter into being principally a technical matter, with its solution being a private one, and that being limited to those who can 'afford' private security (Abrahamsen and Williams 2009).

The consequences of this change in approach to security are noticeable even at the national security level. For example, in U.S.A., consecutive administrations have chosen to outsource security services in order to circumvent the opposition of the Congress towards certain policies. In this way, the system of outsourcing protective services has played a role in empowering the Government's executive branch over the legislature (Engerer, 2011). As well, the avoidance of legislative discussion lessens public disclosure and/or scrutiny as well as preventing media coverage of security services outsourcing. One example is the limited publicly released information regarding the casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations (CJCSI, 2009).

According to Engerer (2011), the findings of an 18-month long ProPublica investigation revealed that 2010 was the first known year where corporate casualties outweighed military fatalities in America. Most contractor losses are still not publicly released in the U.S. because the American Department of Defense (DoD) issues no press releases with regards to contractor deaths. As well, the American media presently shows scant interest in such incidents, given that a vast majority of these contractors are not citizens of the U.S.A.

Conclusion

Personal security officers (PSOs) are in charge of close-in protection of principals (and their associates), and generally accompany them whenever they leave their residence. To guarantee control, continuity, and unity of effort, PSOs are generally the only contact between the principal (along with his staff) and PS team members. Contracting out security services is a rapidly growing trend in the world today. Nations and global companies have become the… READ MORE

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