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Personal security practitioners, also known as bodyguards, close protection officers or personal protection officers, are categorized as one form of the private security practitioners. In this research, personal security is defined as practices of security maintenance to protect particular ‘individuals’ and their ‘dwelling place’, ‘vehicle’, ‘belongings’ from any form of intrusion, harassment or attack. Entering this occupation is subjected to high level of occupational standards and qualifications. Heads of Industry often seek their bodyguards from candidates with military, policing, or national security service background with fighting skills such as taekwondo or judo. Given the void of literature, this research aims to explore the characteristics of personal security practitioners (bodyguards) and investigate how their previous training and work experience help to recognize risk and apply operational strategy to prevent or decrease potential danger to their employers.
I interviewed four practitioners with different age, job title, and years of work. The interviewees are all with military police service background and currently employed as bodyguards by heads of industry. This research adopts theories on violence prediction, risk analysis and routine activity to articulate the operational strategy bodyguards applied. It is found that all of the interviewees were equipped with close protection skills in their previous occupation, mainly trained as close protection officers of politicians. They are characterized as responsible and physically fit and skilled. They see their work as serving the best interest to their employers. Personal security practitioners interviewed are influenced deeply by their previous work experience on observation and risk recognition. Instinct on the spot is no less important than work routines and rules. Although all equipped with the ability to react to hazards during front line operation, bodyguards tend to have different sensitivity to recognize potential dangerous situation. Their operational routine often covers both business and private life of their employers. The protector (bodyguards) and the protected (heads of industry) often spend long time together. Some of them develop trust and friendship in addition to the employer/employee relationship. Those more experienced bodyguards are more indispensable, given that their work scope is beyond purely protection. Therefore, they seldom see themselves as ‘private security personnel’. In sum, personal security practitioners are required to be highly responsible. Those who are younger than 40 years old might see this occupation as a process in their life experience; those who are above 40 years old gradually see it as their career and job until retirement.
Some conclusions are drawn from the interviews and discussion. First of all, retired military officers obtained their professional skills and abilities along with personal characteristics from their military training and politician protection experience. As to the implementation of close protection operational strategy, the principle of risk management is followed to analyze risk factors systematically. However, quick reactions and sense of responsibility are premise when recruitment decision is made on the employers’ side. If there is conflict between employers’ wishes and practitioners’ professional judges, it is often the employers’ wishes will be followed. Bodyguards will make best use of the circumstance encountered and lower the risk as much as possible.
This dissertation is an exploratory research based on domestic cases. The special occupational culture has hindered the access to more diverse background samples. Future researchers, if interested, could continue investigating and comparing the characteristics, work rules, and operational strategies between personal security practitioners with different backgrounds. It will also be valuable to compare the practice and work cultures of bodyguards belong to industries and those belong to private security companies or to compare bodyguards who serve in different industries. The possible impact of increasingly industry export to mainland China to the bodyguards’ work environment is also worth looking into.
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