By Fran Hawthorne, The New York Times
CELEBRITIES and powerful business executives used to be the only ones with bodyguards. Having a guard was a price you paid for being famous. But these days, amid orange alerts and easy access to personal information on the Internet, other people are also feeling vulnerable. And they are looking to hire bodyguards of their own.
Although the bulk of business still comes from corporations, security companies report a steady stream of inquiries from everyday - if affluent - people. A business owner, for example, may want protection when transporting valuable merchandise, while a gambler may need an occasional escort when depositing winnings. Or a husband or wife in the middle of a nasty divorce may want to ward off the estranged spouse.
One agency, Nationwide Protective Services in Cleveland, says it receives about one such call a month from wealthy people, while another, Insite Security in New York, says the lower-profile assignments have grown 33 percent, on average, in each of the last two years.
“Since Sept. 11, people are more concerned about security and what measures they need to take,” said Timothy B. Williams, chief executive of Nationwide Protective Services.
Sometimes, all it takes is a well-publicized incident, like the kidnapping last winter of Edward S. Lampert, a hedge fund manager from Greenwich, Conn.
“The Lampert kidnapping made a large number of people aware that they were at risk, even if they were not well known, because of the reams of information available about their assets and their lifestyle, especially online,” said Christopher Falkenberg, president of Insite Security. (Mr. Lampert was released unharmed almost two days later, and his four captors have been convicted.)
But is hiring a bodyguard - or executive-protection professional, as many guards prefer to be called - really necessary? Fears of terrorism notwithstanding, the number of violent crimes nationwide dropped nearly 26 percent from 1993 to 2002, according to figures released in October by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Serious crimes fell an additional 3.1 percent in the first half of 2003, the F.B.I. said.
“Probably 30 to 40 percent of them don’t need it; it’s more for peace of mind,” Kenn Kurtz, chief executive of the Steele Foundation, a security services business in San Francisco, said of those who hire bodyguards.
Keith Greenhouse, president of the Pavillion Agency in New York, which provides armed chauffeurs, agreed. “In their own mind,” he said, “they feel they’re at risk.”
Who, then, needs protection? Security companies say many clients work or volunteer in controversial fields like family planning or the oil industry; are frequent travelers, especially to the Middle East and Latin America; live or work in neighborhoods that have experienced a crime wave; or have some reason - perhaps hate mail - to think that their lives are in danger.
That extra peace of mind, though, comes at a hefty price. The services of a guard can cost $300 to $1,200 a day, and rates can double if special skills are required, like fluency in a particular language or training in martial arts. Fees tend to be toward the high end of the range in big cities.
Finding someone with the right background can be difficult. The industry has no nationwide licensing system, although many states have their own rules. State licensing authorities generally do background checks to ensure that the guard has no felony convictions and may require some law enforcement experience, a bodyguard training course or a bachelor’s degree in a related field. (Applicants in Texas must also take a psychological test.)
In addition, most guards receive a permit to carry a concealed handgun. A guard working for an executive who commutes from New Jersey to New York would need permits in both states. And what if the client travels from New York to California? “We will supplement with locals,” Mr. Falkenberg of Insite said.
Even with state licenses, bodyguards are “not above the law,” Mr. Greenhouse of Pavillion said. Bodyguards must obey all traffic laws, for example, and are not permitted to make arrests.
The most common arrangement, many security company executives say, is to have a chauffeur who carries a gun and is trained in protective driving, plus a second guard who can scout ahead. Nationwide says clients who are transporting expensive jewelry, for example, generally have an armed driver and, perhaps, a second guard to escort them while the driver parks the car.
Often, security guards are hired for very short assignments. After a small-business owner died last winter, his two sons squabbled so much over the will that the elder son called in two guards to keep the peace for an hour at the lawyer’s office, recalled Mr. Williams at Nationwide.
IN some cases, especially for high-level executives and their families, service can be provided for extended periods. The Steele Foundation says several clients in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Ohio keep security details working all day - a guard and driver for the husband, and a second set for the wife and children. The agents accompany the families to school, on shopping trips and to restaurants.
When a Steele client goes to dinner, Mr. Kurtz said, the agent “will go ahead to the restaurant and make sure there are no unreasonable delays, and the client’s likes and dislikes are taken care of.” He says the guard remains in the restaurant while the clients dine, then escorts them out.
If such arrangements sound a little suffocating and invasive, it is because they are. “Executive protection is the most intrusive form of security,” Mr. Kurtz said. “It’s a lifestyle change.”
He added that his firm discusses the arrangements with prospective clients. “It has to be implemented in baby steps,” he said.
Guards must also be sensitive to a client’s whims. John Fiordaliso, a retired police sergeant who runs Gold Shield Executive Services, a security agency in New York, recalled one client from Beverly Hills, Calif., who brought his wife and two teenage sons on a business trip to New York last May. The boys wanted to spend time at a Circuit City store, playing games on Xbox and PlayStation - without any guards.
The father pretended to go along with their request, but Mr. Fiordaliso said he secretly arranged with the store manager and the father to plant two young-looking undercover agents in the shop, dressed in Circuit City shirts. “In the kids’ mind, they ditched the security,” Mr. Fiordaliso said. “But Dad knows we never took our eyes off them.”