It is a known fact that the protected person is vulnerable in and around the vehicle. Areas where traffic and people are concentrated are ideal for attackers. The protected person is most vulnerable to attackers in these environments and is exposed to direct attack.

As security professionals, especially if we have been doing an activity for a long time, we tend to think that the only skills we need to deal with complex situations are our experience, intelligence and agility of thought. But as human beings, we fall victim to optimism bias.

When predicting task-related missions, we overestimate the probability of positive events and underestimate the probability of negative events. This is human nature.

Office and protection vehicles are often controlled by drivers. Drivers are a member of the protection team. However, because they carry out the same checks over and over again, over time, they become what we call “habituated” and as a result, the checks are not carried out with the necessary sensitivity. It is therefore essential that checks are also carried out by protection personnel to prevent an attack. No matter how boring, checklists are essential for any process that requires reliability, especially when lives are at stake.

A checklist should be created before each mission to ensure that the vehicle is checked properly. Checklists should be general and organized by subject. For example, the executive vehicle inspection checklist should include a bulletproof vest, but it should not have the contents of the vest. This requires a separate checklist. If the checklist is too long, it is often neglected.

What are common signs of sabotage and destruction?

There are various types of sabotage or tampering with executive vehicles. The first thing that comes to mind is the use of explosives or mechanical sabotage to cause an accident. In reality, however, they are instead tactics used to distract the driver to avoid violating traffic rules or committing a crime while driving, or to buy time for an attack. These include:

Noise devices: Any device that causes the driver to stop and get out of the vehicle to check for strange noises while driving. Attackers use bolts taped to the inside of vehicle rims or metal drink cans wedged into exhaust pipes. These simple practices are effective but harmless and easily detected during vehicle inspection.

Distraction tactics: For example, egg whites on the windshield or sticky substances on door handles. These are difficult to remove and are often very successful at distracting the driver from what is going on around them. Such attacks can be a joke or an attack to distract you from what you need to do.

Tracking devices: These used to be bulky and easy to spot, especially as the batteries needed to power them were large and heavy. But this has changed over time. Now trackers are easily concealed and much harder to find. Security professionals should conduct routine scans to find them.

Mechanical sabotage: There are many ways to disrupt the mechanical components of a vehicle, such as a flat tire. Some interventions are easy to detect. But others are difficult to detect and may have different goals, such as stopping the vehicle or causing an accident. New cars are sensitive to tampering and sensors will alert you when something is wrong with your car. It is important not to ignore these warnings. On the other hand, some interventions are not so easy to detect. For example, sugar in the gas tank will make your car stop a few kilometers away from the point of intervention. Saboteurs often use such simple tactics to stop the vehicle.

Explosive materials: This is the least likely and is more likely to happen in the movies. However, it has happened in real life and is always possible depending on the situation of the person you are protecting. So, according to your risk assessment, if there is a risk of an assassination attempt, it is imperative to look for any signs of foreign objects in the vehicle. A juice bottle left on top of the vehicle, or any other object that is not in keeping with the nature of the environment, or simple differences in the vehicle could be a threat. Knowing the vehicle is therefore key to finding anything that may have changed during your inspections.

What are your top safety recommendations for the protection team and the protected person ( VIP) regarding working in and around the vehicles used?

·      Never stay in a stationary vehicle. According to statistics, the most dangerous place in the world is an immobilized vehicle. As a protection professional, you should be aware that when your vehicle is immobilized, your options are limited to surrender or engage. The former is normally the best option under normal circumstances. If the vehicle stops, you have already lost.

·      Under this assumption, you should always direct your decisions towards leaving an exit route and limit the time you spend in a stationary vehicle to an absolute minimum.

·      The safest place in the vehicle for the protected person is the back seat on the right side.

·      This is the place farthest from the initial impact area, usually the driver’s door. If a criminal wants to harm you or the protected person, their first task is to immobilize your vehicle. Immobilizing the driver is therefore usually a priority.

·      This seat has the closest access to the curb, providing minimal exposure and minimizing downtime.

·      Control your vehicle’s surroundings: know where your vehicle is and who has access to it. The more you can control this, the easier it will be to avoid unexpected manipulations.

·      Avoid valet parking as much as possible. They have unlimited access to your executive vehicles and everything in them.

·      The physical integrity of the protected person is central to the protection process. Since attacks are usually carried out with firearms, we should talk about armored vehicles. A technically good armored vehicle is defined in two performance areas:

·      It must have ballistic resistance to a certain number of bullets, calibers, bullet patterns and velocities.

·      The vehicle must be functional or able to move safely during and after the attack.

Maintenance, selection and inspection – How to do it right?

Armored vehicles have parallels with racing cars. Both must deliver 100% performance and accuracy over a given period of time. Selecting, inspecting and maintaining a technical vehicle is therefore a serious task. In simple terms, the choice should match the operational environment, the threat level and the skills of the drivers. In addition, the maintenance, armoring company’s renewal dates must be strictly adhered to.

If the vehicle is in daily and demanding use, we always recommend halving the maintenance schedule. For example, if the service manual specifies an oil change every six months, reduce this to three months. And please don’t forget to check the tires, air pressure, sidewalls and tread condition on a daily basis. These are essential for getting the best performance from all other vehicle components. Just like racing cars, tires are critical to a winning strategy.

Our recommendation for inspections in ordinary operations (except in high-risk environments) is also simple. For daily driver intake, specify an inspection registration form similar to car rental or insurance companies (copy it from them). Don’t forget to include tires and other basic mechanical values such as

·      The oil,

·      Cooling/antifreeze fluid,

·      Battery,

·      Electronic connections and

·      Fuses.

Then take a quick drive to check the vehicle’s trip computer or warning lights. More thorough inspection should be carried out by specialists using special scanners and other diagnostic tools for the powertrain, transmission, suspension and all electronic components, highlighting safety systems.

What are common signs of sabotage and tampering?

If daily inspection records are accurate and carried out by disciplined security personnel or drivers, more than 90% of attempts at physical sabotage or manipulation should be detected. The key concept in managing this problem is access. Who has access to the vehicle, when and how? Therefore, every protection team must map the operational cycle of the vehicle and answer these questions, in addition to correlating threats and activating countermeasures.

What are your top safety recommendations for the protection team and the protected person regarding working in and around the vehicles used?

The answers are as dynamic as the possible scenarios and the clues will change according to each situation. However, I prefer to stick to the principles of the vehicle safety quadrant, so the first and general principle is this: Pay attention to every aspect or area of the protection process as if there is a clear and present danger.

·      Work on driver emergency skills with realistic training scenarios.

·      Ensure that your authority protection vehicles give 100% at all times.

·      Practice protective intelligence, counter surveillance and route analysis as a way of life.

As someone who started his close protection career in Turkey, professionally trained to protect the Chief of Staff, what I can tell you is that executive and protection vehicles are critical in our business.

Anyone who has worked in this sector for a long time will tell you that the executive car they drive is one of the best. However, just having a car is not enough. You need trained drivers who can operate these machines. Depending on the driver, they can be a dangerous death trap or an extremely useful asset.

Medical incidents and vehicle accidents cause more protected person deaths than any other risk factor. That is why your ability to operate, maintain and understand the dynamics of an authority and protection vehicle is crucial in our business.

Driver training is not a once-and-done thing, it should be at least an annual event for professional drivers. You don’t go to the range only once and you don’t go out on the track and skating rink only once.

There are many vital components to the selection, inspection and maintenance of executive vehicle.

Vehicle selection;

·      If you are implementing a risk-based protection plan, you need to consider whether armored vehicles are necessary and what would be the appropriate level. If necessary, work with a reliable armored vehicle manufacturer and do not buy cheap.

·      When traveling and outside your day-to-day operations, vehicle selection is very important. The geography you will be operating in will play a decisive role in your choice of vehicle type.

·      Pay attention to the choice of tires for your vehicle.

Maintenance and Repair;

·      Liquids: While vehicles today are more complex than ever and require professional maintenance, checking fluids is something everyone can do routinely.

·      Tires: Check that all tires are up to recommended pressures, check tread levels and inspect for obvious signs of wear or tear, nails, cuts, etc.

·      Keep good maintenance records and assign this task to someone with the right level of experience and responsibility.

Vehicle security;

·      Always keep it locked.

·      Store your vehicle in a secure garage, alarmed and under camera coverage.

·      When traveling, consider using hidden Wi-Fi cameras overnight if necessary.

·      Keep your vehicle and the area around your vehicle clean. Inspect the vehicle, door handles, windows and surrounding floor area for signs of tampering before using it again.

·      For high threat programs, know what the underside and hood of your vehicle looks like and check both areas for anything added or out of the ordinary before driving.

·      If you suspect any level of tampering, do not use or open doors, evacuate areas and call the appropriate authorities. Use a backup vehicle(s) and treat this as a possible attempt on the life of the protected person and consider other necessary countermeasures.

·      Sometimes it is the little things we do not take into account that make a big difference.

·      Always know where the keys are and, if possible, have a second set of keys on you or one of your teammates.

·      Since you never know when you will need to get into the driver’s seat, each team member should know how to operate each and every component of your vehicle, including door locks, windows, front and rear air conditioning, radio and satellite channels, etc.

·      Depending on your risk factors and an important decision, consult an expert about disabling the driver’s airbag. In the event of an emergency evacuation or defense, your driver’s airbag should not deploy and should not affect his or her ability to drive in a crisis.

·      Seat belts. Simple, everyone wears them without exception, especially the driver and the protected person.

·      Finally, a threat that has been emerging for many years and that many do not take seriously enough is that most protected person protection tools today pose a significant cyber risk.

When a smart car is hacked, it’s worth considering that a skilled attacker can do anything. They can track, change settings, hijack basic controls and even listen to conversations inside your vehicle just another thing to keep you awake at night.

In Conclusion

·      Do not fall prey to optimism bias. In other words, do not believe that negative events are less likely to affect you.

·      Follow checklists, which are crucial to prevent attacks on protected persons in and around protection vehicles.

·      Be alert to noise and tracking devices and distraction tactics.

·      Recognize that explosive devices are the least likely.

·      Keep armored vehicles in mind when traveling to more volatile areas where the risk of firearms attacks is high.

·      Consider that vehicle selection should be appropriate to the operational environment, the threat level and the skills of the drivers.

·      Recognize that daily inspection logs help detect more than 90% of attempts at physical sabotage and manipulation.

·      Remember that the bodyguard vehicle and the vehicle of executive can be a dangerous death trap or an extremely useful asset. It all depends on the mindset of the guard personnel and driver.

·      Remember that a security driver should work with 80% of the vehicle’s capacity.

I wish you to work in safe environments.