What is Close Protection?

To start with, close protection is not what you are led to believe from watching films like James Bond or The Bodyguard. Nor is it like a real life ‘Vinnie Jones’ type film character, depicted as ‘tough, hard and handy with his hands’. After all, do you know what being ‘hard’ really is? It is not just about ‘knocking people out’, and If this is the type of work you’re looking for, then close protection is probably not for you. If you are, however, more concerned with providing high levels of customer focus and prefer prevention rather than cure, then you stand a better chance of fitting in and doing well. Those who may be highly aggressive and find it difficult to control their anger and aggression may find it difficult to fit into close protection as this is not the personality type required. You may well be required to get physical, but you will be held accountable for your decisions and actions and you will be expected to act within the law at all times.

In order to succeed in the world of close protection, you need to be focused on helping other people (your principle and your team members), willing to put your customer, ie the principle, before yourself, and when necessary, to place yourself in danger in order to deflect the danger from the principle and to do so as low key as possible. You should be a good communicator and have high levels of tolerance and patience. Other personality traits desired are logical and strategic thinking as you will be expected to be able to identify a threat, dynamically risk assess that threat, and then select the most appropriate level of control to mitigate that particular risk. If you want to have the option to work as a close protection security driver, security drivers London need defensive and offensive driving skills, exceptional knowledge about different types of vehicles, armor, and more.

Close Protection is all about allowing the principle to lead a normal life. You are there for a reason, and in some cases, from the perspective of the principle, you are an intrusion and a reminder of the dangers (real or not) within their lives. Your work will be thankless. Your task is to prevent conflict and to remain covert (where required), allowing the principle to carry on their life as close to normal as possible. You will probably not receive the hyped-up levels of pay you may read about (or think you will get), especially when you start out. Your first assignment will probably not be in direct contact with a principle either, rather more of a baby-sitting task securing a residence or a venue, watching others enjoying themselves (if anyone else is around), expected to remain alert and ready to act after 12hrs on task.

You will be required to have a good level of fitness, to be polite and resilient, to be an excellent communicator, and extremely reliable and trustworthy with a high level of integrity. Not only are these important for your actual job so to speak, but also in finding work. Be warned, most of your future work will not be seen on job boards like Monster etc, but will be gained from networking. You can already make the connection between the communication skills I previously mentioned and your honesty as a strong link to gaining employment. Many deployments that you gain selection for as you start out may only be ‘day work’ or if you’re lucky, a few days of work.