A Female Only Executive Protection Course?

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Denida Zinxhiria, owner and founder of Athena Academy. An academy dedicated to training women in the field of executive protection.

Denida why a Women’s-Only Course?

 As the founder and worldwide director of Athena Academy, I have had to answer these questions many times: Why would I run a women-only CPO course? How will a woman learn to work among men if she trains only with women? Why join a women-only course when you’re going to be entering a tough, male dominated industry?  Throughout my career in the security industry, I have participated in many training courses to improve myself and my professional skills. Usually I was either the only female student or one of two female students in the course. For some reason it seems that women are, from my experience, treated by the instructors and the male students as the “weak link” in the chain. In most of the physical related training, the instructors would tell the male students to ”treat us easy” or “don’t use full force”.  That ”special treatment” didn’t help to teach me to learn either how or what I supposed to.

 When I started working as assistant instructor and after some time as a lead instructor for other companies, I began to see the same treatment being given to their female students. I could see that the ladies weren’t participating as much as they could, or as much as they needed to even and tended to hold back.  They were always approaching me or other instructors during course break and asking for clarifications or asking questions that they should have asked in class but they didn’t. When I asked them the reason for not asking the questions during the class they would say, that they “didn’t feel comfortable after seeing the critical expressions on the male students.” And this has very possibly been one of the reasons why there have not been a large number of women in the security industry until now. So, the majority of the training available is conducted by all male instructors in mainly all male classes where you might find only 2-3 women participating in them, if at all.  These facts caused me to begin to think, what can we offer to women who would like to break into the field of Close Protection? Studies have shown that the female brain learns new skills and processes information differently than men do. Understanding this fact in turn motivated me to create Athena Academy as the answer to my question, “why offer Close Protection courses in a women-only environment?”    

Denida, how will  women learn to work on a team with men when she is trained only with women?’

 Thanks for the question but usually this question is asked by people who have no experience in the field of Close Protection and do not know what a CPO is or what he or she does.  Our common life on planet Earth among men has certainly taught us how to ”work with and among men,” although I have been wondering what that specific skill is that we need to learn in order to work with men that – that skill that I supposedly won’t acquire if I don’t train in a male environment.   And what about those men who have trained in a course with only other men and no females?  Can we say that those men won’t know how to work with women?  Of course not!  A course teaches and gives you the skills that you will need in order to work as a Close Protection Officer. Our profession is 90% pre-intelligence (mental awareness) and 10 % physical combat ability.  And when it comes to combat ability, keep in mind that those who are experienced in boxing or any form of street fighting will tell you that they felt exhausted after 2-3 minutes into the fight. No matter what one’s athletic ability, combat skills or physical condition, and no matter how well-trained one may be, no one can guarantee he/she will get out of a fight with no bodily harm. As CPO’s our job is to prevent the attack, and when not possible to prevent, then respond fast, spurn the attack and get the client to a safe place.   And we all know very well that those ”combat techniques” that we learn in 2-3 days of training are not going to be enough to say we are trained in how to deal with a combat situation.  Everyone knows that as an Operative he/she will have to be able to protect him/herself and his/her client and will need to do further combat training after they have finished their CPO course. So even if I attend a CPO class with men, 8-10 days won’t make me ready to deal with a real live attack!  So by saying this, how exactly is the presence of male students in my class going to help me while I’m learning let’s say : Principles of CPO, Code of Conduct, Protective Escort, Surveillance & Counter Surveillance, Counter Terrorism, Event and Estate Security, Behavioral Intelligence, First AID/CPR/AED, Basic Pistol Training & Firearms Safety, or Armed and Unarmed Combat? And to make it clear, the course curriculum and instructors are the same with ”male classes”. The standards set are the same, so there is no ”special treatment” as all students are being dealt with in the same.   A single course isn’t going to completely prepare you to work as a Close Protection Operative. You will need to have a sharp mind, be able to make the best decisions in a high-stress environment, and make them quickly, and of course create real life experiences by working in the field!    

For more information visit Athena

 

Social media changing the name of the game

In 2005 Businessweek predicted that blogs and social media alike would change the name of the game.
If you did not as a business participate in this web 2.0 you would find yourself behind the rest of your competition.

 

Is There a Positive Effect from Social Media?

Can there be a positive effect from social media? When using social media we start to have more interaction with people then we would have before. There are common interest groups that bring strangers together to engage them in their interest.

We can communicate with people that are far away in different time zones, without picking up a phone. There are tighter family bonds, as they can see what is happening within your life with  simple click of the mouse. There is proof that we are drawing tighter family units from a distance.

 

ONE ARMED RELOAD

THE ONE ARMED RELOAD

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Use of Force

How does the use of force apply to those in the private security industry? Many working here in the private sector often are not taught the limits of force that they can use when operating as a private agent versus a public servant. There have been guidelines set in the force continuum.  The force continuum has six levels, each progressing with the amount of force one can use when on the job.

The first level of the force continuum is officer presence. The mere presence or visibility of an officer in uniform or vehicle sometimes is enough to deter would be criminals. In the first level of the force continuum gestures should be none threatening.  We often see this first level of force at malls. Here you often see security cars in the parking lot and security roaming the streets of the mall giving a presence of law.

Our second level of force continuum begins with Voice.  One would employ the use of voice when first approaching a subject. In a deep and commanding tone you would give short directives such as, “STOP RIGHT THERE. TURN AROUND. PLACE YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR BACK.” We most often see voice being employed by police, but in the private sector we can still use this level of force.  Often many in the private sector are not trained in the use of voice.

Level three involves control holds and restraints. Control holds are used when one must physically restrain a suspect. Minimal force is to be used using your bare hands to guide, restrain and hold. One should not involve themselves in actual physical confrontation with punch and kicks. At this point one may also use a baton or PR-24, you must remember however that at this level the baton can only be used a self-defense mechanism in blocking someone’s attack on you.  You would likely want to restrain a suspect if they start to become aggressive or if there is a risk of flight. You will want to resist placing the suspect on the ground to handcuff them there is risk of suffocation. Avoid hog tying a suspect.

Level four, chemical agents. Chemical agents are pepper sprays and tear gases. At this point, your lower level of force should have been attempted and should only be used to subdue a violent suspect.  Pepper sprays can briefly stop a suspect but may not fully subdue them. After being sprayed one may become aggravated and increasingly violent so once you have sprayed them you will want to immediately use restraints to control the suspect. In many states you may have to take a course in how use the pepper spray and become licensed to carry it.  You cannot use them to simply protect property or enforce business rules this is a defensive weapon only.

Level five, temporary incapacitation.  At this level in the force continuum, you have used the prior methods and have exhausted them as well as are dealing with a violent suspect and more force is necessary to subdue the suspect until police arrive. You may at this point use non-deadly force.  This includes blows to the body and compression holds. One must be careful when using this level of force, as you do not want to deliver a deadly blow you will want to hit in soft tissue areas versus head or neck blows.  Remember it is best to place a blow to the inner thigh versus a joint where you could break something.

The final level is level six or rather the use of deadly force. Deadly force can only be used when your life is endangered or fear of extreme bodily harm is imminent. Deadly force includes uses hands, impact tools or a firearm. One must be sure that there is no other alternative before using deadly force.

Liability is the next question. When the wrong level of force is applied or used inappropriately who become responsible for this? Is it the employer or the employee? The employee is always 100% responsible for their actions but often an employer can be held responsible under certain circumstances.

As an employer you are responsible to conduct a full criminal history background check,  in a recent case a jury awarded a woman wrongfully detained by a security guard 2.1 million dollars. This security guard attempted to bully and intimidate her while making sexually explicit comments and informing her that he would release her if she gave him sexual favors. The security company failed to conduct a thorough criminal background check. Had they conducted a background check they would have known that he was not a licenses security agent and that he had assaulted a 13-year-old girl.

Not only do you want to conduct a background check on your employees but you will also want to provide training and continual monitoring. If you do have an agent properly trained they could easily misuse the force continuum and without continual monitoring they may become power hungry and believe that can conduct themselves in any manner they please because of their position of trust.

When operating as someone’s personal protection agent you have even more responsibility to not engage a suspect but rather evacuate the client.  Let us say you are hired to protect senior executives wife, and while she is put and about an angry man starts shout at her about her husband and a business deal gone wrong what would you do? Would you engage this individual? No if you were to engage him with any physical force you would likely find yourself without a job, in a lawsuit and your former employer would likely be sued as well. The reason you do want to engage this person is you really do not know their intent and at this point with no weapon drawn you cannot justify using any force beyond voice.

One must remember how they can use force when operating as a personal protection agent or private security officer, or face the consequences.

 

Kent Moyer of The World Protection Group, Inc.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Kent Moyer, CEO and President of The World Protection Group, Inc.  We discussed how he got his start in Executive Protection, and what his HR department is looking for, or rather not looking for in a potential employee. Listen to the Kent Moyer Interview

The World Protection Group, Inc. (WPG) was founded in 2001. WPG is based in Beverly Hills, CA and has 6 full-time corporate employees, 200 full and part-time operational employees including officers, analysts, executive protection agents and investigators. WPG sources from a pool of 5000 agents including former secret service, former military dignitary protection and private sector alumni from Executive Security International and Executive Protection Institute.

In addition to its corporate headquarters in Beverly Hills, WPG also has offices in New York City; Phoenix, Arizona; and Mexico City, Mexico. The World Protection Group, Inc. is licensed and currently conducts business in the following US states: New York, Washington, Arizona, Oklahoma and California. Finally, we have vetted resources located in the following countries allowing us to service the globe: Australia, Belgium, Columbia, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

WPG is a full service international security firm that specializes in Executive Protection. Our philosophy and techniques are based on the United States Secret Service method of providing proactive and preventative protection. The World Protection Group has worked with some of the most high-profile individuals in the world, and in the history of the firm has never experienced an incident that might have caused harm or embarrassment to our client.

Our core client base is Political Dignitaries, Corporate CEOs and their staffs, High Net-Worth Individuals and their Families, Entertainment Organizations and Celebrities and Corporate Security.

Personal security by its very nature is a highly sensitive issue and The World Protection Group assures total discretion, loyalty and confidence in our procedures and discipline at all times.

WPG is a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) and the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS).

 

Post 9/11 2.0

The New GI Bill: Post 9/11 2.0

Both the House and Senate ratified amendments to the Post 9/11 GI Bill on December 16^th 2010, it is now awaiting the Presidents signature.

S. 3447 would enable the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to process GI Bill claims in a timely manner. S. 3447, which we have come to call the “New GI Bill 2.0,” is a comprehensive effort to address the concerns of tens of thousands of student veterans and their families by:

• Offering valuable job training for students studying at vocational schools

• Granting National Guardsmen who respond to national disasters full GI Bill credit

• Providing living allowances for veterans in distance learning programs

• Simplifying and expanding the tuition benefit

• Including a book stipend for active duty students

For more information go to IAVA

So what does this mean for Veterans looking to attend a Vocational trade school? If that school is approved for the Montgomery GI Bill you will be able to use your Post 9/11 GI bill benefits there! Here at ESI we are currently approved for the Montgomery GI Bill, so starting August 1^st 2011 we will begin accepting the Post 9/11 GI Bill! The details of how you can use your Post 9/11 2.0 GI Bill will be unveiled as soon as we have more information.

 

A Battle that Never Ends

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For many veterans the transition to civilian life is never-ending. It is a constant battle to return to living a normal life. Some find that they completely disassociate themselves from society, withdrawing from family and friends. Many have nightmares, some sleep with their guns under their pillows, and others just return home and commit suicide.

There is help available, turn to your friends and family, if you find that is not good enough visit your local VA Center. I have enclosed  map with VA locations throughout the United States. You may also call the national toll-free number at 800-874-0888  attempt1

View Larger Map

 

Treatment

Treatment for PTSD generally takes 18-24 months, although some cases may take longer. The first six months of treatment are often “fairly intense” and can include education, group and one-to-one counseling, and medication evaluations. It is the continuity of care, which can be difficult for soldiers being deployed or moved from place to place by the military. A break in care often leads to almost a regression — you’re almost back to where you were before you started counseling. Twin Cities

In Omaha, a new non-government treatment facility At Ease has began to attempt new treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD. The tiny nonprofit treatment center is finding outsize success in treating military-related post-traumatic stress disorder, which increasingly is being recognized in troops and in family members who never stepped into a war zone. At Ease, the brainchild of an Omaha-advertising executive treats stereotypical cases of combat-related PTSD, helping men and women who shot an enemy soldier or survived an IED attack and now sleep fitfully with guns tucked under their pillows. However, the program also reaches out to new kinds of patients who won’t or can’t seek treatment from traditional government programs such as a veteran’s hospital. Omaha.com

 

High Unemployment Rates Among Veterans

The high unemployment rate is affecting the veteran population. As they return from their tours of duty and return there are little to no job prospects. Lubbock Online

The job market tends to be even tougher on the younger veterans than the other ones.  For all veterans the unemployment rate is at 8.6 percent and for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is 10.6 percent.  The current unemployment rate is 9.6 percent.

Air Force Times