SecurityDriver News

EPI – 3-Day Course on Executive Protection in New York on August 25-27, 2010

This program offers 3 days of instruction and each student actively participates in learning sophisticated techniques and innovative skills and improving their personal performance on protective assignments.

Icon Services Corporation – 5 Day Celebrity & VIP Protection Course – Minneapolis, MN September 8-12th 2010

If you are new to the bodyguard industry or a current operator looking to refresh and polish your skills, this course will offer excellent instruction into the professional side of Close Protection work. Taught by industry veteran Elijah Shaw, who in addition to his corporate clients, has traveled the world as the personal bodyguard of international public figures such as musical giant Usher, supermodel Naomi Campbell, and rap megastar 50 Cent, the course will offer real world problems, scenarios, and solutions from instructors that are currently active in the industry.

Protective/Evasive Driving Program  – August 18-20, 2010

It doesn’t matter whether the driver is confronted with a potential accident or a deliberate attempt to stop the vehicle; nor does it matter where they happen to be in the world when the problem presents itself – survival hinges upon the driver’s ability to – recognize a potential problem as it begins to unfold – manage the time, distance and maneuvering room available to them – stay within the performance limits of the driver/vehicle combination

 VDI’s highly acclaimed Protective/ Evasive Driving program  is designed to  provide executive protection, law enforcement and military professionals the knowledge, skill and ability needed to survive behind-the-wheel emergencies utilizing a methodology that has been proven effective over the course of nearly four decades, which incorporates: 

• application of the science of vehicle dynamics – how the loads placed on a vehicle by the drivers actions effect it’s andling
• a series of exercises designed to closely replicate emergency situations and configured in a specific sequence designed to maximize student improvement
• an objective, scientific process for measuring the individual student’s improvement and overall performance
•  the real world experience garnered from the nearly 150 years of combined security, law enforcement, military and driver training experience which Tony Scotti and VDI’s Scotti Certified Instructors bring to the training arena.

Contact us at –  Tel: 732.738.5221 – Fax: 732.738.5223

email:info@vehicledynamics.net

The upcoming International Executive Protection Conference in Las Vegas August 6-8 is adding a panel discussion on Protective Operations in Mexico. The change in the agenda is the result of the recent assassination of the gubernatorial candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantu in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Many view the assassination as a declaration of war on the state. This assassination is of enormous interest to those of us engaged in security services in Mexico.  

We are collecting information from those who have firsthand knowledge of the assassination. Using that information we will develop an analysis of the event, and I will introduce the panel with a diagnosis of the assassination. My first impression is that it will be a “lessons learned” attack that will be used in the training environment for years to come.

The panel members include: Dan Johnson, of Risk Control Strategies, Craig Dischinger and Cory Smith of Target’s Executive Services Division and Chuck Mauldin, Manager of Special Services for Wal-Mart’s Global Security Aviation & Travel will join the panel. Pete Dordal, Managing Director of International Security Operations for Garda World, will moderate.

It is the opinion of ESI and I concur, that the outcome of the struggle in Mexico is every bit as important as the war in Afghanistan. It is on our borders and there are tens of thousands of gang members in every city in America that are affiliated with the drug cartels in Mexico.

Hope to see you the conference.

I recently visited the Executive Security International (ESI) Stalker Training program in Grand Junction Colorado. The Stalker Program is a part of ESI’s Executive Protection Residency Program. As I walked into the classroom the first thing I noticed was the use of computers as a method of communications and instruction. ESI requires students to bring a lap top to the program and supplies them with a thumb drive that has the lessons and power points. As the instructor give their presentations students follow along on their computers. It was one of those “Why didn’t I think of that” moments.

 These are my observations of the Stalker program. The subjects include

Threat Assessments

Threat management

Surveillance Detection

Advancing

Moving the Principal

Security Surveys

None of the above is new to the world of EP Training but it is how the program is packaged, presented, and students tested that is unusual in the industry and impressive.

The students are split into groups and are assigned to do advances on hotels, restaurants and the airport, produce a plan, present their plan to the instructors, and then implement the plan. This part of the program frankly is what most of the other programs teach, but where this program differs from others I have observed are the time factor, and the interaction between student and instructor.

 The length of program allows the students ample time to complete the task. There is a lot of communications from instructor to student. After every field exercises the students huddle up with their instructors to review the exercises, they go over the good and the not too good. The not too good is analyzed, dissected and lessons learned are discussed, and the students go back out and do it again. Since the instructors are been there done that guys, the lessons learned are real and often taken from their experience – good ones and bad ones, makes for one hell of a teaching tool.

 Prior to the above students are split into groups and assigned to a client who is a victim of a Stalker. The teams get a series of letters. These are REAL LETTERS that were sent to REAL PEOPLE, who have or had a REAL THREAT.

 Students use their Threat Analysis training to provide a preliminary risk assessment, and then use their Threat Assessment training to single out the one letter that is an imminent threat

 Once they identify the letter that represents a threat to their principal, they go through a series of role playing exercises. Using investigative tools and additional role playing they zero in the stalkers. By asking the correct questions during the role playing exercises students will eventually be able to identify the stalkers address, their criminal history, and a myriad of information that will help them to protect their client.

There is an extensive use of role player, at times I had to remind myself that they were role players. The role players are “The stalkers” – the client – a handwriting expert – a Sheriff and a Psychologist.  Again they have ample time, and coaching from the instructors to achieve the standard that has been set. But it’s not just the role players, the time and the instructors it is also the logical systematic order in which it unfolds.

 The conclusion is the threat assessments and management reports that each student (not group) must submit and is graded on. I read one and have to say it was one of the best I have have read, not just from a student, from anyone.

In the Stalking program ESI creates a learning environment that gives the student the time and coaching to reach a predetermined standard, then measures to assure they have reached that standard. The attention to detail, the realism, and the role playing is more than I can put into an article.  I did not witness the entire program, but there seems to be a training philosophy that emphasizes “team building under stress” that runs through the entire Executive Protection Residency Program. A short article like this simply cannot do this program justice.

ESI is in the process of making the Stalker Program a corporate stand alone program, more on this later.

Protective Driving Operations

3-DAY PROGRAM SEPTEMBER 13-15, 2010
PROTECTIVE DRIVING OPERATIONS
ESI’s TRAINING FACILITY IN COLORADO
$950 (Limited Discount Price)

ESI and Tony Scotti’s VDI will be sponsoring a 3 Day Protective Driving Operations in Grand Junction Colorado.

The course provides participants with a unique opportunity to build upon their existing training and further develop the knowledge, skill and ability required to perform one of the most challenging aspects of protection, providing safe and secure transportation in a high risk environment.

This is accomplished through a series of informative discussions and hands on practical exercises, students will develop an understanding of what the driver/vehicle combination can and, most importantly, cannot do when confronted with a potentially life threatening situation while behind the wheel. An emphasis is placed on how the driver can most effectively manage the limited time and distance available to them as a safety or security incident unfolds.

Classroom discussion will include the role vehicles play in mission strategy and tactics. Students will learn how armored vehicles affects the decision making process, and how to select the proper vehicle for the mission – or how to maximize the effectiveness of the vehicle given.

All hands on exercises are scenario based and designed to train and measure driver ability. Hence students will be objectively tested, and are required to attain a standard. All test and standards are based on the laws of physics as applied to vehicle attacks. The scenarios used during the testing are from case studies of vehicle ambushes.

At the conclusion of the program students will have the knowledge too combine mission objectives, with the vehicles supplied, and if necessary, have the skills needed to escape the Kill Zone.

CLASSROOM

DYNAMICS OF A VEHICLE EMERGENCY

CASE STUDIES OF VEHICLE ATTACKS

ROADSIDE BOMBS

KILL ZONE THEORY

TACTICS AND SECURITY VEHICLES

ARMORED VEHICLES 

HANDS ON EXERCISES

BACKING-UP EXERCISE

ROLLING AMBUSH

ATTACKS AGAINST THE CONVOY

VEHICLE FAMILIARIZATION

RUN FLAT EXERCISE

VEHICLE COMBAT

DRIVE DOWN DRILLS

 For more information contact Brandon Delcamp at 888 718 3105

July 24, 2010

For the protection specialist or security driver the worst-case scenario is a deliberate attempt to stop the vehicle.  Surviving those scenarios requires the ability to keep the vehicle moving and clear the kill zone as quickly as possible – no matter what is happening outside the vehicle.

Focused, Intense, Effective Training

 VDI’s Immediate Action Driving Skills course is designed to provide security practitioners – from the entry-level protection specialist to highly experienced private sector, military and law enforcement professionals - the training and experience needed to deal with the worst-case scenario, a vehicle ambush. Where survival comes down to the driver’s ability to respond instinctively to the threat, when the difference between success and failure is measured in tenths of a second. 

This one day course provides students with an opportunity to:

 - Learn from professionals with real world experience

 - Experience the realities of driving through a kill zone        

 - Understand how to effectivelyoperate damaged vehicles

 Students will gain hands-on, practical experience in:

 - Pushing through roadblocks - (One & two vehicle ramming)

 - Defeating rolling ambushes - (PIT/Counter-PIT techniques)

 - Dealing with an incapacitated driver – (Driving from passenger seat)

 - Forced lane excursions – (Surface transitions)

For addtional information
Joseph Autera
Tony Scotti’s Vehicle Dynamics Institute
Tel: 732 738-5221
Cell : 732–586-4020   email: jautera@vehicledynamics.net

Or Tony Scotti
781 395 3097 email tonyscotti@securitydriver.com

Joe giving the standoff foot print lecture in our Surveillance Detection Program

Students working on their field exercises

Joe and Larry getting the students ready for one of Our Vehicle Dynamics and Exercise Design Programs, the program is one of our Mission Oriented Driving Skills (MODS) programs. This is an old article about the program.

The students gathering vehicle dynamics data on a Lenco BearCat, they are measuring handling capability.

Larry and Jerry conducting a motorcade program in the UAE

A while back I contributed a short article to the “Training Log Book” by Rob Pincus. Rob came up with a rather unique and ingenious idea, a book that documents your training.  The book contains over 2 dozen essays from training industry professionals offering their advice in regard to defensive and tactical training. Whether you do a little or allot of training the book is a must. The essays are worth the price of the book.

For more info

DESIGNING DRIVING EXERCISES

The purpose of  placing a student in a given exercise or scenario is to evoke a response from the driver/vehicle which introduces or reinforces specific skills or skill sets , and to afford an opportunity to coach the student on applying those skills and, of course, measure their baseline performance and quantify their improvement. None of this can be accomplished without understanding of vehicle dynamics. This understanding leads to questions that a professional driving instructor asks and can provide answers to:

 How far apart are the cones in the slalom?

What is the width of the barrier in the lane change?

What is the maximum capability of the vehicle, measured in G’s, in each exercise?

What is the maximum rate of de-acceleration of the vehicle?

At what speed does the student approach the vehicles maximum capability in each  exercise (or scenario) that you place them in?

Why are the answers to these questions so important? Because if the instructor does not know the maximum capability of the vehicle and what conditions and/or limitations an exercise will impose on that vehicle, it is impossible to measure the capability of the driver. And if the instructor cannot determine what the driver was capable of at the beginning of their training and then compare that to what the student is capable of at the conclusion of their training, there is no way to determine if the training was effective; in fact, there is no way to establish and meet objective goals for the training.  Perhaps more importantly, without measuring the student’s capability there is simply no way for them to fully recognize what they can, and cannot, do behind the wheel.

 Ultimately, you cannot separate vehicle dynamics from driver training; hence instructors MUST have a thorough understanding of vehicle dynamics and the ability to apply that knowledge to driver training.  Because once they have that understanding, they then have the ability to provide training that incorporates the three critical factors of survivability behind-the-wheel emergencies – the driver, the vehicle and the environment – into exercises that not only provide a mechanism for measuring the driver’s improvement, but also closely replicate the types of emergencies he or she is likely to face.

 For an example of just how advantageous this understanding  can be to the instructor, we  just need to look  back at a an Instructor-level Vehicle Dynamics and Exercise Design program TSVDI conducted for a Federal Agency. When we passed out the calculators (standard issue for the vehicle dynamics savvy instructor), one of the students was looking at the calculator like a monkey might look at a watch – confused. It wasn’t long before he came up to Tony and expressed his displeasure that he would have to learn math to pass the course. He, like many others we have trained, pointed out that during his high school days; (with some it even extends into their college days) math was the bane of his existence. In a roundabout way he made the point that he was concerned that he would not pass the course because of the math. Tony’s answer was the same for him as it has been for scores of others with the same concern – hang in for a few days, and give it your best shot, while we give our best shot to teaching you the math.

 Three days later, as we were on the track designing a training exercise to recreate a specific incident that involved their unique vehicles and the difference a new found knowledge of math and vehicle dynamics made was quite obvious. Tony had put together some guidelines for the students regarding the exercise design elements, and this same guy that had , just a couple of days before, been concerned about passing the course walks up to him  and says “I don’t agree with the way you suggested we design this exercise”. He then proceeded to walk Tony through nearly a full page of calculations he had worked out to express how he thought the exercise should be designed and thoroughly explained why he thought that. In just a few days this instructor had gone from being intimidated by the math required to design driving exercises to combining his knowledge of the laws of physics (and, god forbid, math)  with his operational knowledge of the agencies mission objectives, the unique vehicles they operated and the types of incidents they had faced in the past to develop an exemplary driving exercise; one in which the drivers capability to resolve the problem while maintaining control of the vehicle was able to be objectively measured and, more importantly, drivers would be able to recognize that they were fully capable of resolving successfully.

 At the end of the day, that is the real value provided by an instructor who understands vehicle dynamics and how they apply to drivers training.

There is a good article on “Skill Enhancement vs. Certification” on Jerry MacCauley’s Personal Protection Concepts Blog. Jerry has been a law enforcement trainer for over 29 years, and his Blog is filled with information for the EP Industry. If you are involved in training in any way – this is a must read.