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Gavin de Becker Tom Taylor Jeff Marquart

Ropelines and Barricades

You might at some point participate in meet-and-greet events, moving along a ropeline or barricade shaking hands, posing for photos, etc. These guidelines will make the event safer and easier.

Important Guideline #1: Stand back from the barricade

The first and most important step you can take is a step backwards. Stand back two or more feet from the ropeline/barricade so that people have to reach out far toward you in order to connect, and you have to reach out just a bit toward them --
if you choose to.

By standing back two feet from the barricade, you profoundly improve the experience for yourself while also helping your protectors be more effective, less intrusive, and less obvious.

The protectee in the following photos does this very well, standing back a full two feet from the barricade.

Photo by Ron Murray, ImageActive

Standing in this way, you can choose whom you touch and how you touch.
The idea is that you are far enough back that they actually cannot reach you at all unless you extend an arm or hand to them.

Many candidates unwisely stand right up against the barricade -- terrible because protectors have no space into which they can respond. In those poorly done situations, the ropeline or barricade disappears entirely -- and that's when you see protectors having to shove and be intrusive.

In the better situation,
the ropeline or barricade should be clearly visible to you at all times,
and you decide how close to the barricade you will be, not allowing members of the public or campaign staff to decide how close to the barricade you will be. By standing back two or more feet, you always have available a step forward to avoid falling if someone tugs you and gains some leverage over you. By standing back, you reduce the leverage people have; they are leaning way forward and they have poor footing, not you.

Photo by Ron Murray, ImageActive

This positioning is good.

Important Guideline #2: Never reach into the crowd or over the barricade

In contrast with the protectee who is very good at standing back from ropelines and barricades, here's an example of the commonly seen mistake that's best to avoid: Reaching over the barricade.

Photo from AP Images

Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters TK

Instead of ever reaching over a ropeline/barricade, you want the whole hand-to-hand contact to happen on
your
side the barricade, where you can decide who and how you touch, to whom you extend your hands. As important, when everything happens on your side of the barricade,
your protectors can see and respond.

Important Guideline #3: Avoid full handshakes

It's best to just take hold for a second of the tips of fingers, like the protectee does in these photos:

Photo by TK

Photo by TK

This way, you can release easily and you are not giving a grip they can use to tug you toward them and get you off-balance. You'll also be able to connect with more people in the time available.

Important Guideline #4: Stay your course

Sometimes, you might hear people barking instructions at you, or telling your protectors to move. Often, your protectors will politely decline. They must choose their positioning, and you must choose yours -- positions cannot be dictated by a random event worker who gives no consideration to safety. If your protectors ever appear non-responsive, that's what's going on. Professionals will always be polite -- they won't, however, compromise just because someone asks them to.

You might see some other public figure toss himself into a crowd, or break the golden rule about never reaching over the barricade.
But that's him and doesn't mean you have to do it.

Photo by The News Herald/Jennifer Frew

Multi-tasking Does Not Work in Public

You are at an airport boarding a private jet with your assistant. Your protector is asked to be sure all the suitcases get from the two cars into the jet.

That's the simple scenario, and just that fast, he is no longer a protector. He is no longer watching that man who drew his attention, the man standing back at the aviation building intently watching your every move, nor those people gathered near that gate, or anything else. You might have surmised, "It's fine to ask my protector to do something right now because there's no strangers around the jet right now anyway." Yet there might be no strangers around the jet specifically because people see your protector in position, alert, and actively deterring unwanted approaches. A moment earlier your protector was observing the environment, assuming the best position to intercept anyone who approached the aircraft. Since your request, however, he is a luggage handler placing his attention on trying to recall the description and location of bags and suitcases he might have peripherally seen being loaded into the cars at the hotel. Next, he is reaching around under the seat of the SUV to be sure some item hasn't slid under there. Instead of being ready to protect, he's in line to be blamed if a small paper bag containing something you purchased doesn't make its way into the passenger compartment. (It might well have been loaded into the luggage hold, but for the entire three-hour flight the protector will be the focus of resentment because the location of the paper bag can't be confirmed.)

Even the most capable and effective protectors might make poor luggage handlers. You or your assistant are much more qualified to know how many bags were packed, which bags you want where, which might be missing, which got loaded, which are in this or that car. In our firm, we'll assist clients in any way that enhances their convenience
so long as it does not interfere with security and safety
-- and any request in public that something be done right now profoundly interferes with security because it fully occupies the Now, placing the new task ahead of all others. When told to focus on something other than the mission, a protector becomes less effective -- and is usually a poor doer of whatever tangential task he's expected to handle. Everyone loses, both ways.

To be clear, protectors in our firm are frequently asked to handle tasks outside of security, and we provide a wide range of non-security services that help make clients' lives more convenient and enjoyable. However, these extra tasks are done when clients are home, or when protectors are advancing locations, or after clients depart -- in other words, when not currently engaged in the critical act of protecting.

Appendix 2

Pie Attacks on Public Figures and Executives, a brief report provided to clients of Gavin de Becker & Associates, circa 2006

Pie throwing, which started as a political tactic in the '60s is being popularized again through the Internet. Pie attack targets have included Ronald McDonald (5 times), Kenny Rogers (3 times), Karl Lagerfeld (twice), San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (several times), Bill Gates, fashion executive Oscar de la Renta, Charles Hurwitz of Maxxam Corporation, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Former Chancellor of Germany, a famous geneticist, some authors, a philosopher, and others.