A bodyguard’s duty is to protect the hiring authority – an individual or its family. These security guards can be hired through private bodyguard agencies or can be government appointed agents as well. The persons who usually hire bodyguards from different bodyguard companies are those who are famous and wealthy or have received threats for assault or kidnapping and thus need bodyguard protection. Mostly, a bodyguard agency or bodyguard company is contacted for bodyguard protection by celebrities like sportsperson, movie stars etc. whereas important public personalities like politicians, head of the states etc are protected by the governmental bodyguard agencies.
Public Figures with Higher Risk Need Advanced Protection
For public figures with higher risk, several bodyguards are employed for protection whereas in the case of those with lower risks, often bodyguards serve the dual role of a driver and bodyguard. Bodyguards are not just hired for protection rather they also fend off stalkers of violent fans from attacking and harming the celebrity. The bodyguard company decides how the bodyguard should be armed for protection of the client based on the laws in the concerned jurisdiction. The various types of arms are pistols, pepper sprays or body armors. The government bodyguard agencies are allowed more freedom in this regard and often are allowed to use automatic pistols or mini-submachine guns for the protection of important personalities.
What the Job of a Bodyguard Entails
The job of a bodyguard is not easy and most bodyguard company prefer explaining the hardships of the job beforehand to the applicants to ensure best practices for clients asking for bodyguard protection. The work requires them to be ever vigilant to ensure the client’s safety always. Actions implemented to achieve such goals including examining premises where the client is about to arrive, check the entrances, identify loopholes in security and avoid them and know the staff in and out. The bodyguards who double as drivers should be capable of practicing driving techniques to evade suspicious looking vehicles. Unless the bodyguard company hires vigilant people as bodyguards who can react quickly and calmly to threatening situations, the risk involved would still be as high as without any bodyguard protection.
For group of bodyguards working together, the bodyguard agency designates different set of activities to different bodyguards. For example, some specialize in screening and controlling the crowd, some specialize in searching for bombs or explosives or weapons whereas others might just be acting as protective escorts. But the standard training in combats both armed and unarmed, first aid and driving is a must for everyone in the group. Some bodyguard companies also participate in assessing risk and analyzing weaknesses in security provided by other agencies to clients to ensure that their security is always assured and the client gets a second opinion as well. Sometimes different bodyguard companies need to work in conjunction to ensure seamless protection.
A Bodyguard Is On The Job 24 X 7
The amount of responsibility involved in a bodyguards work requires him to work for long shifts irrespective of the day of the week – be it a weekday or a weekend. The client mostly requires protection 24X7 and therefore, the shifts can be for varying durations and at different time intervals in a day and even on holidays. Again, since the job of the bodyguard is to guard the client, so its not limited to any specific location or city and the bodyguard needs to accompany the client everywhere ranging from office or meetings to public places or social events and concerts. The world is truly a global village for the bodyguard if the client is some foreign minister or needs to travel extensively to other parts of the country or world. So, bodyguards need not just be gifted with good reflexes but they should be good team men as well. They must coordinate their activities so that the assigned task of protection is executed perfectly. But at the same time they should be capable of adapting to act independently if such need arises.
Must-Haves For A Bodyguard
The job of a bodyguard is not easy as the business of security makes the bodyguard protection firms like the various agencies and companies responsible for life of important people. Therefore, they should be able to gauge the emergency of a situation quickly, take quick decisions, act on it, convey the same to others clearly and quickly and always be in control of affairs. The ability to communicate well is important for a bodyguard or else the client itself might tense up in case an attack takes place. Many incidents have come up in recent times where the bodyguards or employees have revealed confidential information concerning their clients to media or other individuals, such practices should be avoided since the client has rights to privy of its private life and does not need to compromise with it for the sake of threat to its protection. The agency asks the bodyguards to sign documents to ensure that while protecting the client, the guard will maintain the confidentiality of the client’s affairs and not disclose it to except under some unavoidable circumstances.
A bodyguard puts his life before the client’s – that reflects the commitment required in this profession.