For this post, I wanted to introduce a new guest author from across the pond. Robin Barratt is his name and he is a close protection specialist, author and the founder of the British Bodyguard Association. I look forward to his future articles about Close Protection and his latest reports about the pulse of the industry in his neck of the woods.
At the BBA, there are several areas to check out which I think are worth mentioning. There is a forum with job postings, a magazine called ‘The Circuit’, a blog and a store. At the store, you can check out some of Robin’s books. There is a subscription fee and/or membership fee for the BBA, but if you are in the business of collecting information about the industry and getting connected, then it should be will be well worth it. Especially if you are able to make a connection or get a job through the BBA network.
This article below is just a taste of the kind of stuff that Robin covers and if you like that, then his magazine ‘The Circuit’ would be the ticket. Also, with the membership with the BBA, you get an online newsletter that is a lot like the Blackwater Tactical Newsletter. Lots of up to date information and he posts the latest jobs. –Head Jundi
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How the Government has failed the British Close Protection Industry
Established in 2003, The Security Industry Authority (SIA) was set up “to raise standards of professionalism and skills within the private security industry and to promote and spread best practice”. It reports directly to the British Government’s Home Office, and its remit is “to help protect society by collaboratively developing and achieving high standards within the private security industry”. However, in my opinion, specifically within the Close Protection sector (as well as the door supervisor area) , it has done just the opposite.
Anyone entering the Close Protection industry in the UK must have a license and the only way to get a license is to attended a training course accredited by the SIA. You must have one of these qualifications before you can apply for a front line close protection licence; 1) Certificate in Protective Security from the Buckinghamshire New University, 2) Level 3 Certificate in Close Protection from the City & Guilds and 3) Level 3 BTEC Certificate in Close Protection Operations from Edexcel. Once you have attended and passed one of these three courses, you can then apply for your licence at a further costs of £245.00 (490 USD) every three years. At the time of writing this, there were 4,117 valid licences, 32 have been revoked and 101 refused.
I agree with licensing and I also totally agree with good training, accountability and transparency within this specific sector of security, however in the Government’s rush and quest to control everything and everyone, it has made the close protection industry frighteningly more dangerous for both operators and, more importantly, the clients themselves. What once once a unique, elite industry manned by some of the best trained professional operatives in the world, is now open to absolutely anyone – anyone from any background can now protect another human being against the threat of assault, kidnap and ultimately assassination. You can be a over-weight, unfit, supermarket shelf filler, who has not done one minute of exercise or self defence, and still attend, and pass, a close protection training course, and apply for and receive a front-line license. In my opinion, this is not making the industry more professional, it is turning the British close protection industry into a global laughing stock.
Admittedly, like every in industry, there were cowboys in this industry as well; there were people running correspondence courses in close protection, there were farcical courses run by people with absolutely no experience what so ever and there were so-called ‘CP’ courses based entirely on unarmed combat. And admittedly, the SIA has rid the industry of most of these clowns. However, prior to the SIA, the industry was pretty much self-governing; contracts were awarded to operatives via recommendations and referrals and only to those that had attended peer recognized training. And recognised training companies never accepted people on their course that were not of a high enough calibre. Yes, it was unfortunate for those shelf-fillers that had wasted their hard-earned money on a unrecognised course, but the industry is ultimately there to protect people against the gravest of threats, and not for feeling sorry for the wannabes who had wasted their money. Now, however, the sole priority for most close protection training companies is to pass as many students as possible – who would attend a course with a company that only had a 50% pass rate, even if those 50% were the best of the best? In my opinion most training companies now are only motivated by profit, not by producing an elite team of professionals.
A short while ago I was a guest at a local close protection training course, talking about living and working in Russia (my speciality). The classroom was on the second floor, on the way up to the classroom I passed a twenty something stone ‘student’ who was puffing and panting his way up the stairs.. During the talk I asked all those students who in the class felt they could ‘look after themselves.’ Everyone put up their hand. I then asked who had had intensive close quarter self defense training. One person, from a class of thirteen, put up her hand. Everyone said they could ‘look after themselves’, yet no one knew how to! And if they didn’t know how to look after themselves, how did they expect to look after a client? EVERYONE passed the course.
This is what the SIA has done to the industry, it has opened it up to absolutely everyone and anyone, regardless of their background, experience or capabilities. They have given the job of protecting somebody against a possible threat of assassination to absolutely anyone. There are many clients, contractors and employers that now just ask if you have an SIA licence, regardless of your background or experience – not because they want to, but because they have to. They want to provide the best service possible but in many cases are limited to employing just those with SIA licenses. As I mentioned earlier, my speciality is high-risk protection in Russia. I have lived and worked in Moscow for many years, my wife is Russian and also from a security background. I know the city as well as my home city and I have hundreds of contacts, yet I was recently turned down for a job because the contractor was British and I did not have an SIA license – the job was given to someone with a license but who had never stepped foot in Russia. This is what the SIA has done.
I recently attended a SIA network meeting. In an open question forum I asked the SIA: if licensing was supposed to professionalise the industry, why can almost anyone pass an SIA course, surely this is a contradiction in terms? They had no answer.
There are still many good, honourable, experienced, professionals working within this industry sector here in the UK, but since the SIA introduced licensing, there are 1000x more wannabes than there ever were.
©Robin Barratt
President: The British Bodyguard Association