Executive protection new solutions for a new era

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Subject
Business Finance

School
The Ohio State

Question Description
Response #1 250 words 1 cited reference

Explain why Oatman states, “It’s not about the gun,” in relation to the profession of protective services.

Protective services professionals face a myriad of challenging duties requiring a great number of specialized skills, i.e. self-defense tactics, counter-ambush driving, first aid and CPR, advance work, evaluation of threats, risks, and vulnerabilities and firearms training, many of which become instinctive through many years of training and practical experience. Aside from the more tangible skills required of the EP professional, they also must possess particular character traits given the nature of this kind of work.

West and Jantzen (2016) argue that the following character traits to be of particular importance to the EP professional due to the “special demands of the protective service industry”: Resourcefulness, resilience, commitment, discretion, service-minded, self-aware, self-regulating, socially skilled, empathetic, and self-motivated. This seems to demonstrate that while physical attributes and technical skills are certainly required to effectively perform the job, there is more emphasis placed on the emotional intelligence and character of the EP professional.

Oatman (2006, p. 102) seems to agree with this sentiment when he categorically states, “EP is not about the gun”. If we think about the core mission of an EP professional, it would be easy to assume the “gun” would play an integral part in protection missions. Adversaries, enemies, criminals, whatever you’d like to call them, most certainly have a weapon of some sort. As Oatman (2006) pointed out, firearms are common in the United States, readily available both legally and illegally, so it would be safe to assume an adversary would indeed have access to and use a firearm, or another weapon, in their assault against a principal.

Oatman emphasized that he is not anti-firearm, but believes protective services personnel should exercise sound judgment with respect to its use. In a threat event, the main goal of the protective service agent is to protect their principal from harm and meeting a firearm with a firearm is rarely a recipe for success. Protective services professionals should really focus on the identification of risks, threats, and particular vulnerabilities and enact measures to mitigate them in ways that make armed conflict remote, or at least much less likely.

Oatman (2006, p. 103) acknowledged that attacks may happen. He provides a systematic sequence he called “arm’s reach, sound off, cover, and evacuate” in the event protective service professionals find themselves in a situation in which an adversary brandishes a firearm. This sequence is carried out by protective services by immobilizing the assailant if they are within arm’s reach, calling out that a weapon is identified and its general location, and covering and evacuating the principal as quickly as possible.