PMCI - October 2014

If you are travelling with
a Security Detail, will they understand
the operating environment
at your destination and act
within it? You have every right
to challenge every single one of
their assumptions, until you are
happy with their approach.
A businessman friend of
mine recently travelled to Lagos
and after shopping around,
he eschewed the high-profile
(and expensive) armed police,
screaming-siren escort usually
offered to visiting executives
and opted instead for a single expat
Nigerian, who lived outside
the country but knew
the operating environment
perfectly.
The guy was not allowed
by local law
to carry a weapon
but compensated for
this with a low-key
approach and ability
to sniff out trouble
before it happened.
A pre-trip planning
meeting in Europe,
to run through all
routes and meeting
locations so that they
could be reconnoitred
in advance, gave
added confidence to the client
during the operation and the individual
gained his trust quicker
than a local operator would have
done if he had only been meeting
them for the first time on getting
off the plane.
Establish primary, secondary
and tertiary routes wherever
possible for all ground transportation
during your visit (on
one operation in the US I had
to rely on a sixth choice evacuation
route!). Ensure that any
particular security hotspots and
support points, such as Hospitals
and Police Stations, have been
identified in advance on all your routes. Finally, don’t be so naïve as to think that a
Security Detail will solve all your problems and that you can switch off. One of the
major findings to come out of Statoil’s investigation into the In Amenas Refinery
attack in Algeria, was the asset’s over-reliance on local military and not enough
attention paid to strong management processes and systems, training within the
company and intelligence-sharing with other international bodies.
Communications
Efficient communications are not only vital during the planning and realisation
of any trip but also in your ability to respond effectively in the event of an emergency.
Calling for help is arguably the single most important thing you can do in a crisis;
newspapers love stories of family members being able to effect dramatic rescues of
loved ones, once notified of their distress by Facebook, Twitter or SMS from a remote
location. On the flip side, when communications fail the results can be disastrous.
Following a shooting spree at Los Angeles International Airport in late 2013,
what hindered first responders
was not knowing which
Efficient communications are not
only vital during the planning and
realisation of any trip but also in
your ability to respond effectively
in the event of an emergency.
Calling for help is arguably the
single most important thing you
can do in a crisis.
Terminal the firing was coming
from. The phone system
and some panic buttons inside
Terminal 3 were not
working properly and the
first call to airport police was
not completed because the
caller ran for safety before
they could say exactly where
they were (and the phone
system itself could not track
where the call came from).
Many of us will simply
be relying on our cell phones
but a spare, portable, fully
charged phone is the least
you might want to include. If you know your destination, identify any cell or other
data black spots in the area you are visiting and make sure you have a backup plan
if your cell phone fails to function effectively when you reach where you are going.
Before you leave, establish agreed communication procedures with your office
or your family back home. These do not need to be complicated – simply a promise
to text or call at a prearranged time. Furthermore, brief them on what to do if they
do not hear from you. Not always a nice conversation to have, but essential.
In remote, high-risk locations, you will probably be using satellite communications
rather than GPRS but you need to have a plan for what happens if your phone
is taken off you. Make sure that whoever is sending you has the ability to continually
track your whereabouts. A range of easily affordable, commercially-available and
unobtrusive personal tracking devices are now on the market, enabling data to be sent
over GPRS and satellite networks to trusted contacts. On one particularly risky job, I
spent three days with a tracker wedged into a fairly intimate part of my anatomy. I´m
sure its location didn´t facilitate the signal but it was the only option! I’m not saying
that you should go that far but you could consider putting a small tracker into an item
of clothing or luggage when working in or travelling to hostile environments.
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