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Limo down!

I presented a Question of the day on Twitter yesterday. The question was if you are on a movement with a protectee who, for the sake of this question, has a low threat. You are riding in the front right seat and you have a driver. There is no follow vehicle nor any support vehicles and your limo goes down for some reason. What do you do? For the sake of this scenario I won’t play the situation too far by adding a location nor time of day. It’s just a basic scenario that I wanted to present.

Your options are vast, yet limited at the same time. Can you call a cab? You could call the driver service if you or the client hired the car service you are using. Thoughts are flying through your head even as you read this blog entry because you probably have never planned for the car to go down. The main thing that is pressing through the front of your brain is, “I have to get my principal off this static position.” Because the threat in this case is low, calling a cab is a valid option. Having a cab service respond can, in some aspects, be viewed the same way as an Off the record movement. It’s not like you planned to have a cab service as part of your transportation plan. Getting out of the vehicle and walking would probably be my last resort depending on the location and my options of places to hold until the cab arrived.

Public transportation is always something you have to keep in the back of your mind, because in a last case scenario you can never rule out any mobile possibility. Let me say this again, I am not saying that public transportation would be my choice, however is it better to sit in the vehicle or grab a cab and keep moving. That’s a choice you have to make. All I am saying is think about the possibility. Now obviously this option gets wiped off the board in most cities abroad, however in CONUS, its at least an option.

We had a principal that had a medium to high threat against their life. We traveled around the world with him/her and when he/she was in CONUS we took them to NYC at least 2 times a week. We used Amtrak exclusively. Our protocols, planning and logistics were set in a way that we had total control of the trip every time. I won’t discuss how we did it however if you are a registered blog subscriber and email me I will share it with you. The key was liasing with the right people and reservation savvy. The point is proactive planning in most situations can harden the most obscure possibilities. I personally know of one situation where an Army SF guy drove the USAMB around Liberia during the Civil war in a toyota car without his regular DSS protection team. It can work, but you have to think the process through. That’s what this blog is about. Planning for all possible situations and not taking anything for granted.

It’s one thing to train on how to respond, there’s another thing to practice it. View this VIDEO

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