Protecting Assets

Protective Operations Protection is extremely important in the human experience. Without it we cannot thrive and grow. Protection is essentially an abstract imaginary quality that can be achieved in many different methods. Protection is necessary at all levels of existence and any significant lack of protection will result in death or demise in some way. The purpose of this essay is to identify the basic principles in protective operations. This essay will examine these principles by discussing several examples of protective operations in different capacities and environments.

In discussing these principles, this essay will reveal the importance of the quality of protection and its relationship to the quantity of protection. Defining Protective Operations To better understand the basics of protective operations, the idea of force protection serves as a fundamental to the practice. Force protection is defined as "Preventive measures taken to mitigate hostile actions against Department of Defense personnel (to include family members), resources, facilities, and critical information.

Force protection does not include actions to defeat the enemy or protect against accidents, weather, or disease."[footnoteRef:2] What is most important in understanding protection from this definition is that the idea is of a defensive nature. Aggression nor coercion are qualities of protection and the defensive posture that protection infers should mark the strategic implications of the methods used. [2: Military Dictionary. "force protection." Viewed 10 April 2014. ] Protection is a psychological operation that requires a different mindset than other types of military or police operations.

McGovern (2011) wrote extensively on this differing mental approach and how understanding these basic principles are advantageous to those professionals practicing protective operations. He wrote " protective operations are unique in law enforcement. It is a function that police officers are often called upon to handle while being perhaps one of the least prepared for. For law enforcement officers on a protective assignment, a certain degree of the cop mindset must be changed. "[footnoteRef:3] [3: Glenn McGovern (2011), Protective Operations a Handbook for Security and Law Enforcement.

p 3.] Fundamentals In any protective operation there are important and key variables to distinguish if there is to be any success. Planning and pre-planning are essential to developing a well rounded risk assessment and determine how and where the most suitable option of execution. The firsts principle of a protective operation is to understand who, what or where needs to be protected. In many if not most cases, certain peoples or populations serves the purpose.

Once it has been determined what needs to be protected, a risk assessment determining the vulnerabilities of this target needs to be conducted to determine the best method to protect. Determining who is most likely to threaten the object of protection is also important and must be answered to successfully protect. Finally a methodology for protection must be chosen that aligns the strategic outlook of the parties and the appropriate responses to the risk presented to the protection.

According to the Secret Service, it is important to understand the important aspects of protective operations. The information on the website noted that "The protection of an individual is comprehensive and goes well beyond surrounding the individual with well-armed agents. As part of the Secret Service's mission of preventing an incident before it occurs, the agency relies on meticulous advance work and threat assessments developed by its Intelligence Division to identify potential risks to protectees,"[footnoteRef:4] [4: United States Secret Service, home web page, viewed 11 April 2014.

] Protective operations must make full use of both human and non-human resources. In many cases these aspects are secret. Part of the job of those offering protective services, is ensuring that safety and security is maintained at all times. Secrecy and deceit are hallmarks of these operations and is extremely necessary to accomplishing the many risky tasks that contribute to such efforts. Coordination between key players is another real aspect to basic principles of protective operations.

Reconnaissance and intelligence gathering activities are very much a part of these services and the powers of observation and decisive action are very much in demand. The secret serviced also denotes protective research as a meaningful and necessary component to these types of operations; "Protective research is an integral component of all security operations.

Agents and specialists assigned to conduct protective research evaluate information received from law enforcement, intelligence agencies and a variety of other sources regarding individuals or groups who may pose a threat to Secret Service protectees."[footnoteRef:5] [5: Ibid.] Advance security planning is the result of the many risk assessment.