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What Type of Protector Are You?
What type of protector do you want to be? And how are you going to get there?
In this week's On the Circuit, we're sharing some great advice on how you can steer your career in the direction you want it to go, rather than just riding the waves and seeing where it takes you.
You need to be honest with yourself and ask "why would an employer choose me from hundreds of other potential applicants? Are you doing enough to stand out in a crowded industry?
Today we're going to look at the essential ingredients that go towards making a long and rewarding career in protection.
Let's get into it!
The Circuit Magazine Podcast
If the entire EP industry is based around networking, referrals and reputation why are we asking if operators find networking success hard? This week we welcome John Morrison, founder, CP World and many other hats to the Circuit Magazine Podcast to ask:
How can operators get more out of networking events?
Do you still need to remain the 'grey' professional and if so how does that impact your business development and promotion?
How have operators taken in person networking success online?
Should we differentiate between branding and networking?
What can operators learn from your journey?
If you enjoy listening to the Circuit Podcast and can spare a minute, please rate/review us. Your rating will help us to rank higher making it easier for others to find the podcast.
The Need to Know
The mayor of a Mexican border city remains silent after shootouts prompted the U.S. Consulate General to issue local security warnings.
Request is widely seen as symbolic, as moving nuclear warheads closer to Russia would make them less militarily useful
A mass shooting and knife attack has killed at least 37 people, including children, at a nursery in northeast Thailand.
The gunman, a 34-year-old former police officer, killed his wife and child before shooting himself dead, police said.
The Russian army has stepped up the number of attacks by Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones, aiming a dozen such devices at a town near Kyiv on Wednesday alone.
The military that we have today is not the military that we need for the threats that are appearing in the future,' Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre warned.
Two former eBay security executives, James Baugh and David Harville, have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a harassment campaign targeting two business journalists.
In his starkest assessment yet, US president says world is the closest it has come to nuclear catastrophe in sixty years
For more timely global updates like this, get the Circuit Daily Briefing delivered to your inbox... daily! Get on the list >
From the Pages of the Circuit Magazine
In my experience, it is mainly the people that don't do anything proactively about finding work who are generally the ones that complain that there is no work.
Speaking from his experience, Robin Barratt shares his top advice and strategies for how to improve your employment prospects.
There are thousands of qualified protectors on the circuit, so why should an employer pick yours? I am being blunt and to the point, but you really must ask yourself these vital questions if you ever stand a chance of operating as a protection officer.
One of the most important things you should do is to decide very early in your career which environment and in which speciality you wish to work. You cannot do anything significant unless you make this fundamental decision.
You have to look at yourself and be realistic about which sector of CP you want to work in. For example, if you are 6'5” with a shaved head and built like a brick s**t-house, it is unlikely you will find a position looking after children or aristocracy, or within much of the corporate sector – celebrity protection is probably more of an option. But if you are short and skinny and unimposing, you probably won't get celebrity work, even if you are a combat specialist, but in the corporate world, you'd blend in.
If you enjoyed this article and want more great content from across the industry then subscribe to the Circuit Magazine >
Latest Issue of the Circuit Magazine
Circuit Magazine - Issue 63 - Get Your Copy
In the latest edition of the Circuit Magazine, we hear how the fear of Artificial Intelligence Impersonating Humans is no longer science fiction. From election rigging to affecting the course of war, it's a real threat being played out on the world stage right now.
"I've been able to complete my CPD for the Security Institute thanks to the magazine articles I’ve written for the Circuit Magazine. I appreciate the opportunity and hope the readers enjoy the content."
- James Bore (Cybersecurity Contributor)
Geopolitical Analysis by RANE
Despite recent moves, Armenia is unlikely to advance normalization with rival Turkey until there is greater progress made in Yerevan's territorial disputes with Turkey-backed Azerbaijan, risking a collapse in normalization talks that would leave Armenia isolated in the Caucasus.
For decades, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a tense territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders but is largely populated by Armenians.
During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Turkey provided military aid to Azerbaijan, which helped Azerbaijan battle Armenian troops and ultimately gain territory in the disputed region. Russia, which is allied with Armenia through the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), stepped in to mediate a cease-fire and provided 2,000 peacekeepers to uphold the agreement.
Armenia has sought normalization with Turkey primarily as it looks for other ways to counter Azerbaijan without Russian aid, but secondarily to increase trade ties, reunite families and enable access to Armenian historical sites inside Turkey.
Armenia's conventional military ability to counter Azerbaijan is limited. Its armed forces are smaller than Azerbaijan's and largely rely on Soviet and Russian equipment, which proved to be severely disadvantaged against Turkish drones used by Azerbaijan during the 2020 war. These same Soviet and Russian systems are also underperforming today in Ukraine, where Russia's battlefield setbacks have likely only further raised Armenian fears over Moscow's military capacity.
Another Azerbaijani offensive could cause Armenia to walk away from normalization talks with Turkey, which would sever Yerevan's ties to the one power able to effectively pressure Baku to halt attacks.
However, if Armenia can normalize its relations with Turkey, and especially if it can do the same with Azerbaijan, it would seriously undermine Russia's influence in the South Caucasus.
Turkish President Erdogan said that his government would allow the establishment of Turkish (and, by extension, NATO) military installations in Azerbaijan, much to the chagrin of Moscow. While it remains unknown whether Turkey would follow through in doing so, the mere option represents a further erosion of Russia's long-declining influence in Azerbaijan in favor of Turkey.
Special Offer for On the Circuit Readers
From the Community
The US Vice President’s Motorcade was involved in a car accident. From this video that looks to have been taken right afterwards what are your observations?
"For a motorcade movement route selected is based on several threat mitigating factors such as the avoidance of choke points a good example is the traffic stop light just above that tunnel. Once a motorcade starts its movement it doesn’t stop until it gets to its destination it’s for this reason they also avoid roads with traffic stop lights. Another important consideration for motorcade route selection is the ability to establish dominance of the route in the event of an attack or incident. As can also be observed in this video the agents had total dominance of the road leading into the tunnel and beyond."
- Ben Alozie
Ask questions, get advice, and find industry resources from an active and thriving community of professional, working operators:
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Upcoming Events
In association with the BBA, CTGI presents the Eighth Annual Executive Security and CP Technology Forum in London. One of the few 'must-attend' events on the protector's calendar.
Meanwhile...
In May 2017, protestors demonstrating against Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan were attacked by the Turkish Presidential bodyguard on the streets of D.C., the recent US Supreme Court brief states:
U.S. law enforcement separated the protesters from the Ambassador’s residence at which President Erdogan had arrived, yet the Turkish agents ‘crossed [the] police line’ separating them from the protesters ‘to attack the protesters’ ‘violently,’ without any indication ‘that an attack by the protesters was imminent,’ […] or any other reasonable basis for perceiving a threat to President Erdogan.”
Turkey invoked the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) in an attempt to have the case against the protection agents dismissed.
However, President Joe Biden’s administration has backed demonstrators before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that agents of the Turkish government do not enjoy sovereign immunity over the alleged assaults.
The US solicitor general, Elizabeth B. Prelogar emphasized that foreign security personnel have every right to protect diplomats and senior officials from genuine threats.
But Prelogar noted that while International law recognizes the importance of protecting diplomats and senior government officials during their travels abroad, the right of foreign security personnel to use force isn’t absolute.
“Foreign states’ authority and responsibility to protect their diplomats and senior officials abroad is subject to an important limitation: foreign security personnel may use force on domestic territory only in the exercise of their protective function—that is, when the use of force reasonably appears necessary to protect against a threat of bodily harm,” the brief says. “Consistent with that limitation, the State Department’s guidance to foreign missions states that protective escorts ‘may only bring weapons into the United States for the purpose of protecting the visiting foreign government dignitary they are accompanying.'”
The solicitor general added that Turkish bodyguards used force “outside any reasonable conception of their protective function.”
Rita Ora has given fans a tour of her £7.5million, Grade II-listed London home on Wednesday, showing the stylish interiors in a new video for Architectural Digest. But who else is she opening the doors to?
"This article is not only inviting an attack on her home but making it easy for anyone targeting Rita Ora.
Not only does she show the layout and her possessions….she even identifies exactly where she lives by pointing out the exact ‘Blue plaque’ that identifies her home.
Lets assume she’s naive….how are her agents and management allowing this to be published? Once this is published, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle…her risk of being burgled has now increased dramatically.
It’s interesting to know whether such an article would cause any insurance claim to be null & void." - Philip Grindell (Defuse)
Elsewhere on the Circuit
"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society" ~ Aristotle ~
Animal Rebellion's direct action at Harrods, Selfridges and Fortnums. What are the arguments in favour of non-violent direct action? What's the point of security staff if they can not react to an incident without fear of being arrested and charged for doing their jobs? Very sad situation in the supposed developed world at the moment, very much in regression.
- Orlando W.
Final Thoughts with Elijah Shaw
"Ethics will take you way further than dollars will."
A simple yet informative statement that protectors can carry with them throughout their careers as a guiding principle. Elijah Shaw speaking at the recently completed ICON Celebrity & VIP Protection Course.
Until next week...
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