What is an Advance?  It is a security survey of all parts of an itinerary to include hotels, restaurants, vehicles, other transport, hospitals, doctors, & routes of travel.  The Advance is done by Executive Protection Agents prior to the arrival of the protective detail at each city, state, or country that the protectee visits. Advances are the most important aspect of Executive Protection.

The Advance is designed to ensure the protectee’s visit and daily schedule proceeds in a secure and smooth manner.  The first concern of the Agent is that the protectee is safe, as a result the Advance imagines all possible threats to the protectee and includes methodical site surveys, meticulous planning and procedures and a game plan to address such threats were they to materialize.

Advance work can be very complex and a high level of training and experience is required.

Below are is a checklist of areas that must be considered as part of an Advance:

The amount of time that can and should be spent on each Advance depends on many things to include external and internal threat level, relative stability and crime level of the area, budget.  On some international protection assignments, the Executive Protection Agent should be in the ground several days before the arrival of the protectee.

Many times this is not possible; on a recent assignment WPG did 36 advances in 4 days all while maintaining security on the client.  In this case, when the client was in a secure location, the close protection team left to do the advances on the remaining itinerary for the rest of the event.  Clustering advances by location and not chronological timing allows the team to be more efficient.

If it is not possible to do an in-depth ‘advance’ ahead of time, some important work can also be done in the 5-10 minutes before the protectee arrives.  In these types of Advances, you must prioritize what you must need to know in a short time:  the entrance and exits, location of the rest rooms, meeting locations, identification of a safe room, and nearest hospital.

Another important component in the advance is adding a medical response by the Executive Protection Agent.  You must know where the best trauma centers are and how to get to those locations.  In addition, if the protectee has a medical issue you may want to arrange VIP treatment with a pre-established doctor should there be a medical incident while traveling.  All Executive Protection Agents must be CPR, First Aid, & AED certified and some are even Emergency Medical Technicians.  A medical kit should be always on the protection detail.

This is a short overview of Advances which we consider to be the most important area in Executive Protection work.

When thinking about an international businesss trip or summer vacation , WPG recommends that you spend 1-2 hours to develop a security plan .  Below are 20 tips for international travel:

1. Register your trip on the US State Department and CIA web sites for the countries of destination.                     
2. If you work for a company that has a Global Security Director, speak directly to that person and ask them for resources to help you in that country.
3. Note the US Embassy or US Consulate contact information and address.  If you plan on making regular trips to that country, visit the US Embassy or US Consulate and see if you can meet the Regional Security Officer.
4. Use GPS systems on rental vehicles to help navigate around the cities you will visit.
5. Research the nearest trauma hospital and know how to get to that location.
6. Plan the routes you will take to get to your meetings and sites you will visit.  Ensure that you do not go into a high crime area.
7. Vary your daily routes and times. 
8. Flashy jewelery, watches and expensive luggage can attract unwanted attention, leave these items at home.
9. Research which hotels are safe and meet with the hotel Security Director to discuss any specific concerns.
10. Have an evacuation plan from the hotel and have park your vehicle where you can gain easy access.
11. If you detect that someone is following you,  try to get reliable information on the bad guys and report them to the Regional Security Officer or FBI in that country.
12. Take a medical kit with you on the trip and Automated External Defibrillator if someone in your party has a heart condition. Be trained in CPR, First Aid, & AED.
13. Have the proper insurance to inculde Kidnap & Ransom, Travel, and Medical Evacuation.
14. Do not use your cell phones while walking on the street and in the car.  Cell phones are a distraction.  It is important to maintain a high level of security alertness to response in case of an attack.
15. Get in the habit of looking for things that don’t fit in and looking for potential bad guys on a daily basis.
16. If an attack occurs the only thing that will save you is the speed of recognition that an attack is occurring.   Evacuate from the area as fast as you can, and create as much distance from the bad guys in the fastest amount of time possible.
17. Establish a relationship with an International security company that has resources in foreign countries.
18. Consider using a Security Driver or Executive Protection depending on the level of risk in that country.
19. Trust your intuition and evacuate away from any possible threat or danger.

Coming soon!