Additional information you may wish to consider regarding EP details:
1) Constantly changing vehicles
2) Video Route Reconnaisance: Should have a minimum of 3 routes: Primary, secondaries "A" and "B". All 3 routes need to be reconned at all hours of the day and night...traffic patterns, congestion, light synchronization, routine deliveries, road construction, etc.
3) Body Armour for all personnel: You should also have a tactical vehicle- van, suv, whatever, that contains additional weapons, ammo, medical supplies, radios, bomb blankets, armour shields - the round ones are best. An agent can carry a shield with 1 hand and still be combat effective with the other one. The shield allows 1 agent to provide cover for a fallen agent, principal, or as a unit, the team can deploy a complete phalanx of the round shields completely protecting the principal 360 degrees if necessary which they can then use the "stomp and drag" method of riot control- pushing an angry mob backwards to effect the extracation of your principal.
4) Armour plated vehicles: If this is not available, then placing bomb blankets on the floor of the vehicle, windows and doors, cieling, etc will provide some protection. Also, you can buy threat level IV panels and plates seperately and insert them inside your vehicle's door panels.
5) Bomb Dogs
6) Safe houses w/stashes of cash, weapons, radios, body armour, food, bottled water, medical bags.
7) ComSec - Communciations Security- employment of a cryptic language or "double speak"
8 Duress Signal
9) Constant changing of radio frequencies and authentication codes.
10) Flying- Book a commercial flight, but then at the last minute switch to a standby chartered flight that no one else knows about.
11) Body Doubles- employing a decoy who pysically resembles your principal but is actually another agent. Send them off in the EP convoy, then transport the principal in a common cab or other vehicle.
Where is the best place to hide a needle ?...not the haystack....in a box of needles, right ?
12) Keep all information on a "need to know" basis only. Each part of the machinery has a specific job to do, but only key people need to know the whole operation...the other parts do not. Logic being, if one section of the detail gets captured or compromised, they cannot give up information they do not know.
13) Medical- 1 member of your team should be a certified combat medic, preferably a former Special Forces or Navy Seal Medic. The Agent in charge should have a complete medical history file in a file box of each agent, along with blood type, in the event they get injured during the detail. Additionally each agent should have issued thier own blood to the local blood bank or ER of the area they are operating in to be held "at the ready" should they be injured in the line of duty. Alot of big city cops do this on a regular basis so they know they are getting thier own blood pumped into them as opposed to a stranger's that may be infected.
13a) The same goes for the principal...they should deposit thier own blood to the local hospital in the event they are injured during an attempted attack.
14) Licenses and ccw's: Almost every state, as well as the ATF, has laws governing the transportation of firearms into and out of thier states. Additionally, a tourist ccw is not the same as a working ccw. In EP details, almost each major Police Dept. has what is referred to as an "Office of Protocal". In most cases, the sr agent or the "Scout" (agent in charge of route recon) is responsible for liasoning with the local leo's, ascertaining and securing all required licenses, permits, and if required, weapons registrations.
For example, in most Southern cities, it is lawful to carry weapons with high-capacity magazines (a magazine or "clip" that holds more than 10 rds); However, in states like California, unless you have a permit or license to do otherwise, you can only carry a maximum of a 10 rd clip...now you can carry as many 10 rounders as you like, but the magazine capacity cannot exceed more than 10 rds each.
15) Weapons: All personnel need to be equipped uniformally. Same model side arm, same model carbine, same calibres, etc. The logic behind this is self explanatory.
16) Training: Prior to the actual mission, the team should train as realistically as possible. Since civilian protection specialists often do not have access to leo or military training grounds, paintball fields offer the next best thing. A team can rent out an entire paint ball field for nominal fees for a few hours, be completely tacked out, and run through a variety of scenarios. Often times you can use family members, friends, co-workers, etc to play roles of protesters, hostages, aggressors, etc. for training purposes only. They do not need to know anything about the upcoming actual assigment. College ROTC units make fantastic aggressors....
17) EP Personnel: Should be prior Military/LEO, fluent in other languages-especially if travelling overseas. Unencumbered with families of thier own...spouses/children can distract an agent at a critical moment which can get everyone killed. For example, your in "stealth mode" and you forgot to put your cell phone on "silence" and all of a sudden it rings 3 feet from a target's house...loudly enough to be heard in the next county (This actually happened to me once, the phone ringing part...only it was a telemarketer....
).
This is only the tip of the iceberg regarding EP details. Others, who are far more experienced and skilled than I am may contribute as they see fit.
