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REACTIVE VS. PREEMPTIVE INTERVENTION
By Graciela Casillas, M.S., C.P.S.Reactive vs. Preemptive
Intervention
More than four decades have passed since I first met Bob Duggan, my Hwa Rang Do instructor in the 70's. In 1980, I attended the formative 10-Day training program for protection agents in Aspen, Colorado.
I recently revisited the now 28day close protection program that evolved into a very different training regime than what I experienced in the original course 42 years ago. I was curious to know how the program had progressed. As I sat through the first lecture, I realized that not only had ESI's focus changed dramatically, but their teaching philosophy had taken on an entirely different trajectory with a focus on Intelligence Based Close Protection (IBCP).
In my interview with Duggan, he explained the evolution of training concepts that affected the transformation of Executive Security International (ESI) into one
of the more well-known executive protection training institutions in the country. Duggan, a co-founder of the Aspen Academy of Martial Arts in 1973, imbued with a vision of the ancient warrior steeled in all the martial skills of the modern era, lived ready to cast his body in front of the bullet aimed at a corporate "Liege-Lord." The 1960s and '1970s, was fraught with revolutionary assaults on the old and the new global order. Every country south of the border claimed its brand of urban or rural guerrillas who sought to change the existing order of things. The same year the Aspen Academy was founded, Mexico's industrial Baron, Don Eugenio Garza Sada, was assassinated by a leftist group called 'Lega Communista.' Five years later, while teaching in Monterrey, Duggan met the Baron's daughter-in-law, who urged Duggan to start a school for bodyguards.
Inspired by the suggestion, in 1980, Duggan founded ESI with the elusive vision of highly trained martial artists filling the ranks of the close protectors who would stand guard over those who had a growing sense of insecurity. The training stressed the reaction skills: Escape & Evasive Driving, Defensive Shooting, Martial Arts, The 1960s and '1970s, was fraught with revolutionary assaults on the old and the new global order. Every country south of the border claimed its brand of urban or rural guerrillas who sought to change the existing order of things.
and Secret Service Protocols. In the critical skills, he sought out nationally known personalities – Colorado Hall of Fame Indy car race driver, Wally Dallenbach; nationally known shooting instructors, Lance Weber, Dick Barber, John Farnam and a legend in the Secret Service, Jack McGeorge, S.S. Specialist, a munitions analyst, and electronic countermeasures technician. Duggan repurposed the combative techniques from his Hwa Rang Do and Hapkido art to a specialized set of defenses adapted to close protection.
For a decade and a half, Duggan stressed the hard-reactive martial techniques as the basis of close protection. Then graduates like Charles Mauldin and Barry Wilson, who attended ESI in the 1980s and '90s, returned to ESI and shared their experience, suggesting that as much as they loved the training received at ESI, they rarely, if ever, used it. rush driving skills taught by Dallenbach in the 1980s: ramming, forward and reverse 180's, highspeed takeout counter maneuvers on the highway. As much as they valued the shooting skills learned on the shooting range, they never heard of a gunfight between protective details and the bad guys anywhere.
The reports from working graduates were impactful, causing Duggan to revamp the teaching philosophy. In 1992, Duggan replaced the four days of evasive driving with a stalker problem based on actual cases that required the students to analyze threatening communications, detect surveillance and develop a plan to manage a live-action threat. The students were required to write up their analysis and a management plan, then operationalize their strategy in an assault scenario and submit their reports for evaluation by the staff.
While protective formations are useful in dense crowds and unruly fans, they are seldom used in corporate environments or for celebrities not performing for an audience. It was more typical to be a Solo Practitioner or perhaps work in a team of two. Nor did they ever see, or hear of, any of the adrenalin
Predicting Human Behavior and Preemptive Intervention
Duggan advanced his belief that identifying abnormal behavior in the crowd, targeting the precursors to assault was as important as how fast you draw and fire your gun. These were two different skill sets, both relevant to the professional
protector, one reactive and the other preemptive.
Observing and preempting ambiguous aggressive behavior begins with developing critical thinking skills. While most testosterone-driven young men and women may not embrace the concept or need to develop behavior intelligence, the reality is that most will never find themselves in a physical confrontation that requires the use of lethal force.
According to Duggan, there is a critical difference between protective escorts and intelligencebased close protection. He argues that failure to identify the precursors to the attack, whether deadly or prank, equates to certain failure, and the Protection Detail becomes the "Clean-Up Crew." After studying scores of assaults on public figures, he refocused ESI training by including Behavioral Intelligence as the basis of Preemptive Intervention.
Statistically, deadly assaults on public figures like corporate executives are extremely rare, and gunfights between protective details and assassins don't happen. Duggan points out that most protection training focuses on physical components of training and combative skills. Yet, today, clients are looking for CPS who are sophisticated with valuable skills worth paying for and often have nothing to do with combat skills.
Duggan found comfort in his discovery that several federal agencies or their working agents used the same strategy. For example, he learned that the DEA used the technique with astonishing results of 85% successful identifying, engaging, and arresting drug couriers in international airports in the 1970s. Following the 9/11 attack on the country, TSA learned the methodology from the Israelis to preemptively interview airline passengers. The most dramatic discovery was to know that the Marine Corps adopted a training in behavior intelligence beginning in 2004, called The Combat Hunter Program.
Duggan observed that the Marine Corp was teaching the same approach he introduced to ESI in the early '1990s: Identify-EngageAct. The language was different, but the practical application was parallel. Duggan used the term "Searching for the Precursors to Assault”; The Marine Corp spoke with more precise language: "Hunt"! Duggan conceded that the Corp's language was more
direct and translatable into action than what he taught. A significant difference in the search methodology between a corpsman and a protector was distance. A corpsman looks down his sites of his M-4 at 100 yards, while the protection agent is focused on the threat generally at 20 feet or less, and if he does his job right, he seeks out the predator in the crowd like a laser beam at arms-length. ESI adopted "Predator Hunting," approximating the Marine Corp's targeted language. The issue is then, "What to do?" According to Duggan, the most challenging task of shifting training focus from Reaction to Behavioral Intelligence was finding the right people to teach it. In 2010, he met two individuals who would play a major role in teaching the concept of Preemptive Intervention based on hunting the predator and intelligence, Meb and Jenny West.
Meb graduated from ESI's Executive Protection Program in 2010. It was not a simple matter of IQ that attracted his interest in Meb assisting with teaching complex
content. In addition, Meb came with 26 years as an Army Ranger Intelligence Officer, did tours in Iraq, and retired from service as a Sgt. Major. Jenny West served as an Intelligence Analyst in Eastern Europe.
Duggan felt they viscerally understood the importance of protective intelligence to protection. While Duggan left students to their own resources to figure out how to write a Threat Assessment and Management Plan, Meb and Jenny taught them how to write, format, and analyze a threat and produce a report on a corporate level. This approach to teaching at ESI was a "gamechanger" and led to expanding the Threat Assessment component of Executive Protection to seven days and evolving into the Crown Jewel of ESI's Close Protection program.
A crucial component to the Predator Hunter concept is to demand the students know "How to Engage" the Person of Interest (POI). It is not enough to have your "Head on Swivel" or have "Situational Awareness." None of these commonly used terms by protection agents adequately deal with the "Hunter Complex," which requires making direct contact and engaging the POI in an "Interrogating Conversation." Two of the three critical components of Hunting are Engage and Act. Duggan teaches these concepts in terms of a Soft or Hard Entry. When you go in Soft, you must have a conversational skillset and team back-up if the contact goes South to the ground. Jenny focuses on developing a course of instruction that prepares an ESI graduate with Verbal Judo that is teachable and effective.
ESI adapts its training philosophy to require that intelligence is the basis of protection as a matter of doctrine. It is a slow process to convert all Core training programs, including the Corporate Security and Personal Security Detail (PSD), to align with this progressive approach to teaching. ESI is fortunate to have experienced instructors like Glen Boodry, reshaping and rebranding the PSD program. Once approved by the State and Glen's assistance in program design, the high-risk training program will be rebranded as PSD, Natural Disasters & HighRisk Protection. The re-designing of PSD will prepare its graduates how to operate in natural disasters like earthquakes in Haiti and child slavery in third-world countries.
and being employed by Clift Stewart for several years attending to his international clientele, I worked in the field believing that I was prepared to do the work. I worked primarily as a low-profile agent, keeping my head on a swivel, ready to react to any given threat. I, like so many, focused on learning defensive tactics and invested endless hours at the range and in the gym.
Today, my primary focus is teaching and no longer working in the field. However, revisiting ESI’s Executive Protection program, has reminded me of the importance of developing our mind and intellect. The course was challenging and not every student made it to the finish line.
The modern Close Protection Specialist must possess a variety of attributes with critical thinking being at the top of the list. After completing the course, I understood why ESI is referred to as the Harvard of Executive Protection. Duggan, a visionary and inspiration to students, philosophy permeates throughout the curriculum, establishing higher standards in the field and elevating Executive Protection to an elite level.
Graciela Casillas, Black Belt Hall of Fame Inductee, has been a martial artist and defensive tactics trainer for 48 years. She was a columnist for Black Belt Magazine along with other trade magazines. She is the author of The Lioness Within, A Woman’s Self-Defense Survival Guide
