This article serves as a follow up to Michael Dorn’s September 29 article titled Campus Security: How to Develop Protective Details for High-Profile Speakers and Dignitaries.
On the date Dorn’s article was published, I was part of an executive protection (EP) detail brought in to secure a high-profile public figure who was making the first campus appearance at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
SMU is a beautiful and expansive campus. It is also adjacent to the George W. Bush Presidential Center and therefore hosts myriad foreign dignitaries and domestic public officials.
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In a day and age where we have witnessed the eerie similarities between the assassination attempts on President Donald Trump’s life and the actual assassination of Kirk, the traditional approach to executive protection — especially on campus and at large outdoor mass gatherings — is dead. Gone are the days of relying exclusively on saturating the environment with bodies as a means to providing a secure envelope for a principal. As was suggested in Dorn’s article, if you are not thinking and more importantly implementing out-of-the-box products and technologies, you are behind the eight ball and doing your principal, yourself and the host a disservice.
On-campus protection presents its own unique security nightmares for those in the EP space. Principals want, or more importantly demand, to be front and center and very much present and engaged with their audiences. That is the last place we as protectors want a principal to be. So how do we overcome the inherent risk?
SMU Embraces a Multi-Layered Security Approach
The team that was assembled for the SMU detail was comprised of a series of subject matter experts bringing a significant number of capabilities to the table as outlined in Dorn’s article. Our team consisted of EP specialists with years of service and experience protecting high profile individuals as well as U.S. assets and embassies all over the world. The on-the-ground and in-close team was supported by cutting edge technology including but not limited to:
- Drones: Drones provided Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and
- ATAK: The Android Team Awareness Kit deployed using End User Devices (EUD’s) to all personnel providing a common operating picture allowing for centralized communication and situational awareness
- Ballistic Protection: Utilizing mobile rifle rated ballistic Active Shooter Evacuation Security Shields (A.S.E.S.S. Boards) to provide cover and/or concealment for the principal.
- Biometric Monitoring: Issuing wearables to the principal that allowed for biometric data like heartrate, respiration and body temperature to populate into ATAK so the medical team could monitor vitals in real time.
- Injury Sensing Garments: Revolutionary undershirts directly connected to ATAK that can communicate the mechanism and location of an injury, be it a gunshot, stab wound, or burn in real time, alerting medical personnel about an issue, even if the principal is unable to communicate.
- Asset Trackers: Geo location devices that populate both in ATAK and independently, allowing real time Position, Location, Information (PLI) of the asset being tracked.
- Counter UAS: Deployed counter drone technology alerting to unauthorized UAS systems in the area and which can populate in ATAK.
Deploying all of these assets and capabilities allowed for a robust and comprehensive layered security approach to this event.
Key Technologies Act as Force Multipliers
At the forefront of these capabilities are drone and counter drone technologies, which, when working in conjunction with ATAK, provides perhaps the most value by being the biggest force multiplier. Having the ability for the protective and ground detail to not only see what the drone sees but be able to identify and locate anything suspicious in real time was an absolute game changer. It cut down on distracting chatter and allowed cross-agency communication, cooperation and the ability to execute instantaneously with clarity and decisiveness. (See photo.)
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We deployed both glass (see through) as well as opaque mobile ballistic ASESS boards that provided the principal with crucial cover and concealment while also allowing visual connection and engagement with the audience behind the safety and security of rifle rated ballistic glass (See photo.)
The Role of Centralized Communication and Data in Executive Protection Details
Deploying ATAK allowed our EP detail and partner law enforcement agencies to see everyone, including the principal, in real time with designated identifiers. ATAK allowed us to mission plan in advance of the actual event. We had predesignated route plans to get the principal to the event or to higher levels of care in the event of an emergency.
Tracking vehicles allowed real time preparation for the arrival of the principal at the event and the ability to see and communicate the principal’s location both on and off site and get automatic alerts as to progress or deviations. Being able to pre-identify hotspots and vulnerabilities allows for faster and easier deployment of assets when we can all see what is being put out over the radio, requiring less verbal command and more reflexive response, cutting down on reaction time.
Deploying wearable devices and having revolutionary injury sensing garments gave our team the ability to broadcast the principal’s biometrics into ATAK in real time so that we could see heart rate, body temp and respiration and push those metrics to the medical personnel or higher levels of care in real time, should there be anomalies. The injury sensing garments populate mode and mechanism of injury in real time, indicating gunshot or stab wounds and where on the wearer’s body said injury was inflicted. In the event the injured party was unable to communicate, this would enable immediate medical response and intervention. (See photo.)
Collaboration is Essential for Success
But none of this happens in a vacuum. Being able to have cooperative and collaborative interaction with partner agencies is really what makes all this come together and work. SMU has a fantastic on-campus police force run by a very dedicated chief who is innovative and forward thinking.
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Everything on campus goes through the campus police chief, and this was not his first rodeo. While the chief was the on-scene incident commander, he was very open and receptive to all the above capabilities. The same could be said for Dallas PD and SWAT, both of whom were on site.
Another unique capability that we were able to bring to the table is that our drone operators were also comprised of snipers and bomb disposal techs, which provided significant value in being able to utilize drones as not only overwatch but for counter sniper and EOD assessment. Being able to work collaboratively with these entities and use each other as force multipliers really made the most out of our collective capabilities and provided the principal perhaps the most robust security package available.
Enhancing tactics with technology is an absolute and should be the standard moving forward.
Izzy Fried is a former volunteer in the IDF, NYC prosecutor, Supervisor and instructor for Six13 Guard an all-volunteer security guard company securing schools and houses of worship, FEMA certified in Incident Command and Active Shooter response, NRA pistol and Rifle instructor with 10 years of consummate EP experience and consummate tinkerer and problem solver. He has been working with local, state and federal agencies, and foreign allied nations to find and create innovative solutions to complex problems.
The author welcomes reader questions, suggestions and feedback at [email protected] or https://fox2sierra.com/contact
Note: The views expressed by guest bloggers and contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Campus Safety.
