Checkmate Strategic Services offers a variety of protective services to meet the unique needs of our clients. We generally recommend low visibility protective services for discreet personal protection without disruption to the client’s routine. This may include:
- Low Profile Individual Protection
- Protective Surveillance
- Event-specific Covert Security
Maintaining a normal appearance and drawing less attention while traveling, attending events, or meeting people is important to many clients. There may be significant considerations for public relations or the individual’s “brand.” It also creates uncertainty for adversaries, increasing their risk and potentially deterring them from action.
What does this look like in practice?
Low profile protection is tailored to risk. Not every situation calls for an overt security detail. Instead of guards in suits and sunglasses, wearing earpieces and visible weapons while standing next to the client, low-profile protective specialists blend into the environment to observe, identify threats and proactively warn authorities before hostile acts take place. When necessary, they act decisively to prevent immediate harm to the client.
For residential security, operatives might discretely secure the home environment with a combination of surveillance, access control, screening of staff/visitors, and perimeter checks. Clients can relax without the constant visible presence of guards. This is especially relevant for families, children, and private social events.
Protective surveillance can be thought of as “defense in depth.” It’s an outer layer of protection to a client’s close-protection or residence detail. The objective of protective surveillance is to identify and neutralize suspicious activity before it escalates, without revealing the presence of security personnel. Advantages include:
• Preventive security, not reactive
• Observation and pattern analysis instead of confrontation
• Extends reaction time for close-protection teams
Protective surveillance may also include counter-surveillance. An adversary’s targeting cycle typically includes some form of pre-attack surveillance of the victim. Agents performing counter-surveillance detect and disrupt hostile surveillance activities before they progress to operational action.
Threat surveillance is another low-profile security measure. If a particular individual is threatening the client (harasser, stalker, disaffected employee), then deliberately monitoring that individual’s location and activities might be the best way to provide for the client’s peace of mind. As long as the threat remains away from the client, there may be no need be a need for obtrusive close protection. If the threat gets close, the protective agents conducting surveillance can coordinate with authorities or the client.