Executive Protection: A Q&A with Rob Chadwick

It should come as no surprise that our nation’s leaders (and, in some cases, pop culture icons) go about their business under constant protection. But who provides this executive protection, as it’s called? And how?

We spoke with John “Rob” Chadwick, a former executive protection professional, about his experience in the field and the lessons he learned. Rob served on the protective details for several U.S. Attorney Generals, in addition to his extensive experience with law enforcement and the FBI. He is now the Director of Education & Training for the USCCA.

This Q&A with executive protection expert Rob Chadwick has been edited for length and readability.

Deep Sentinel: Can you tell us about your background?

Rob Chadwick: I retired recently after 30 years in law enforcement. Started my career with the Fairfax County Police Department in Northern Virginia. Spent some time with the special operations division there. I was a K9 handler.

After joining the FBI, I worked narcotics and military technology protection with the Bureau. But most of my career was spent in the tactical program as part of the SWAT team at my local field office.

And then I, towards the end of my career, had the opportunity to go back to DC, where I was an agent in charge for the Attorney General of the United States, his protection detail. I actually served on seven different protection details, or seven different Attorneys General, served on their details as a protector, and then was an agent in charge for Attorney General William Barr when he was the Attorney General.

Then, the last assignment in my career, the last several years was at Quantico, where I was the unit chief, the head of our tactical training program at Quantico for the FBI.

Deep Sentinel: What exactly is executive protection?

Rob: The FBI has a full-time protection detail for both the Attorney General and the Director of the FBI. Both of those positions get a full executive protection team—a protection detail, if you want to call it that—24 hours a day, 365 days a year, everywhere they go. They are protected while in office. I served part-time several times on the Director’s detail and then quite a bit of time on the Attorney General’s detail over the years.

Executive protection, at its core, is all of the planning and execution of literally every detail that goes into protecting a high-profile individual from physical harm. And, in our case, from political embarrassment.

Obviously, it’s important for that person to get to where they’re going and remain safe while they’re there. So it’s protecting them from any form of physical harm, but also not putting them into a situation that might cause political embarrassment.

We were always very cognizant of that. Most executive protectors are also expected to be at least somewhat involved in that aspect of executive protection as well.

Deep Sentinel: Is the term “executive protection” specifically used for political figures? Is it a different term if you were, say, a celebrity?

Rob: Executive protection is very broad. Sometimes you’ll hear “dignitary protection” for a political figure, but executive protection would apply to political figures or potentially a high-profile executive at a company or even maybe a Hollywood star or an athlete. They’re somewhat of an executive within their own brand.

Really, the concepts and principles in terms of securing those people, making sure that they remain safe, and then also protecting them hopefully from any type of political embarrassment is also part of that mission. Executive protection is a broad statement that would apply to almost any professional providing protection for an individual.

Now, you hear the term “bodyguard.” There are a lot of distinctions. It would be nearly impossible for one person to protect one other person solely everywhere they go. There’s so much teamwork and so much that goes into the advanced work of executive protection. Someone goes out ahead of time and makes sure the drop site is secure and alternate drop sites are planned out and down rooms and routes.

If you’re just walking beside someone, you’re really going to be far behind the power curve in case something were to develop. A true executive protection program almost always involves multiple people and quite a bit of communication and planning.

Movies in Hollywood will portray lots of firearms involvement. And the fact of the matter is, in an executive protection role, if you have to use your gun, your mission has almost by definition failed. You have allowed something to develop to the point where you have to use your last resort. You failed as a mission planner.

In all the years that I ever traveled, and I did it internationally quite a bit, I never once had to pull my weapon. I always had it, always had all the equipment and all the armor and all that, but never had to use it. And that was due in large part to excellent planning and coordination with my team.

Executive protection is pretty darn boring if looked at from the outside. There’s a lot that goes on. It’s almost like a duck swimming. You don’t see a lot going on above the surface, but below the surface, those feet are going a million miles an hour.

Deep Sentinel: What skills or training does this line of work require?

Rob: I always say you must be physically fit. That allows you to have the stamina for those long hours on your feet. To react quickly. In case something does happen, to physically move your protectee from a situation. Sometimes you might have to carry that person.

But also physical fitness conveys a certain level of preparation that predators are looking for. So the physical fitness piece is important. Really.

Weapons training is also very, very important, but plays such a minimal role. You must be competent, confident, and capable, but the chances of you actually using your weapon in an executive protection role are minimal.

Those are skills that you can train, but the much more critical skill that I look for is interpersonal communication. Can you relate to a person? Because ultimately you are relating to a person. You have to be able to at least get along with them, understand their moods, understand their needs.

As the executive protector, you are very much invading their personal sanctity. Their privacy, their family. I had the opportunity to work with lots of our governmental officials and all of them had their own families and their privacy needs. And we did absolutely everything we could to not intrude, but we also had to be ever-present. And that takes a lot of finesse.

So, that ability to communicate with people, to have that empathy, to have that insight into what’s bothering somebody or anything like that is a softer skill. It’s harder to train and develop, but is absolutely critical for a good executive protection agent.

So, physical fitness, stamina, firearms proficiency, and weapons or defensive tactics proficiency are very critical. But it’s that inter-human communication, that relatability, that is so critical to being a really top-notch executive protector.

Deep Sentinel: What are some of the most common threats faced by high-profile individuals today?

Rob: Well, of course, the number one fear is assassination. And that is rare, but it does happen.

There are people who will commit crimes simply to make themselves famous. I was rewatching the documentary the other day on Gianni Versace, who was murdered on the steps of his house in Miami by a person who wanted to become famous and would do literally anything to become famous or infamous. And people probably remember his name. I won’t mention it.

Reputational attacks, embarrassment. There are all these people out there who are internet provocateurs who are trying to get clickbait, trying to provoke some reaction or some embarrassing thing that they could manipulate and edit carefully, edit what they want to show that would detract from the protectee’s image.

So reputational attacks, obviously physical attacks, that sort of thing, you have to be on the lookout for. Those are the things that protection details—domestically, anyway—are really concerned about.

Now, with international travel, of course, the threat goes way up. Because generally speaking, in many parts of the world, it’s much less stable and predictable than it is here at home. But those are the types of attacks that we’re seeing.

There was a recent high-profile attack. Michael Bloomberg, one of the richest, most famous people in America, with all sorts of security apparatus at his command, literally had someone drive a truck through the gate of one of his homes. He grabbed a woman who he thought was one of Michael Bloomberg’s daughters with the intent to kidnap and extort.

Fortunately, he had the wrong person and that person was not ultimately hurt. But think about how all that money and all that security and these layers of security… This worked out okay. But stuff like that can happen in the blink of an eye.

Deep Sentinel: How has technology changed the landscape of executive production?

Rob: Obviously, in the last 10 or 15 years, technology has exploded with smartphones and all the interconnected data sources available. And certainly, there’s a much higher level of data available for threat awareness and detection.

But one worry I have is that there might be an overreliance on technology. It comes down to physical security. Are you able to detect early enough? All of the gadgets in the world are great, but every time you have any type of data or gadget, you have someone working behind the scenes to counter that.

The overreliance on it is what concerns me. It may have instilled a false sense of complacency sometimes in some of the protection details.

I see that, “Hey, we’ve run all the checks, and we’ve got a geofencing up, and we’ve got all this technology going on.” Well, when there’s a will, there’s a way.

Deep Sentinel: What trends do you see in the future of security?

Rob: Technology has come such a long way in just a few years. I’ve worked with Axon. It’s one of the largest security technology providers. And with drones and robotics. These things are getting smaller and more capable and more agile.

You’re almost certainly going to see attacks coming via drone like you’re seeing right now in war theaters. In Ukraine, there are hundreds of videos available on YouTube of pretty simplistic devices, literally attaching an explosive device to a drone, flying it over a target and dropping it, or flying the drone right into the target itself.

So drones and counter-drone technology are going to be a massive area of growth for executive protection because it’s so difficult to defend on the ground unless you have really robust technology to defeat it.

Robotics as well. Lots of sensors. From a technology standpoint, you’re seeing what they call ubiquitous technical surveillance. Everything, all the time is being recorded. Facial recognition software is widely available and very sophisticated in terms of notifying a perspective predator when someone passes a camera.

All sorts of technological threats are out there that we as executive protectors and even in law enforcement, candidly, are having a hard time keeping up with. I know the Bureau is investing heavily in training the new generation of agents to operate in this ubiquitous technological surveillance state.

You’re going to probably see lots of people, individual people, wearing body cameras in the near future. You’re already seeing it spread from law enforcement to retail workers. And I think in the very, very near future, you’re going to see that on everyday people. And of course, that can present threats as well.

So all sorts of interesting developments related to technology are coming down the pike.

Deep Sentinel: Do you have any memorable stories from your career that you can share?

Rob: I had such an incredible career. I was very fortunate to be healthy and have the opportunity to be on some really interesting assignments. I’ll share a funny one that came to mind.

Several years back, when I was in DC on the Attorney General’s protection detail, we were heading back into DC after dropping the Attorney General off at his home. The weather was really bad.

In a motorcade, you never allow much gap between the cars. You don’t want vehicles getting in between the protectee car and the follow car. Even if the protectee wasn’t in the motorcade with us, we always practiced that discipline. And I’m talking a foot or two off the bumper of the car in front of you at all times, even at relatively high speed.

So the weather’s bad. We’re driving. And our windshield wiper literally comes off. The rubber itself either froze or ripped or whatever it was. So now we’re driving nearly blind.

As the driver, I’m relying on my front seat passenger to lean out the window from his side and clear just a little bit of a windshield. I’m craning my neck to see through. I mean, we’re kind of screaming and laughing at the same time, just trying to keep up with the motorcade and not allow a gap in coverage.

That was pretty amusing. All this money and equipment had come down to a $16 wiper blade that nearly derailed the whole thing.

We probably drove five or six miles that way. The defroster was definitely not able to keep up with the weather at that time in DC.

Deep Sentinel: What personal safety tips can the average person learn from executive protection services?

Rob: There are so many.

The most important, of course, is understanding that… Think of it this way. When I was with the Attorney General’s protection detail or any of the others, we had armored cars. We had well-armed agents who had lots of experience and proficiency, but that never would be the justification for us to take our protectee into a place where we thought there was a significant threat.

I say that to remind people, let’s say you have a concealed weapon permit or you have a gun or some type of weapon. Never allow that to justify you going into an area where you feel like there might be a significant threat. If we thought there was a threat, we would go somewhere else or we would postpone the trip, or we would take a different route.

So many times I fear that individual thinks, “Well, I’m okay because I’ve got my gun,” or “I’m okay because I’ve got my pepper spray,” or whatever it is.

Trust your instinct. Trust that intuition, your body’s early warning system that something’s not quite right. And live to fight another day. Defer that trip. Don’t ever let that weapon or that training be your justification to go into a dangerous situation. Always, always look to avoid and maybe come back another day.

Deep Sentinel: What are some of the most valuable security lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?

Rob: Preparation is key to everything. And people say you can over-prepare, and that might be true, but I never once went on a mission where I felt over-prepared.

I did this for a lot of years. We never had a single significant or serious incident. Most of that was through preparation, and then also what I like to refer to as “pre-made decisions.”

A pre-made decision is something where it’s almost like a mathematical given. If this set of circumstances develops, then I’m going to do this. If I’m approaching a drop site and I have a suspicion that this guy’s acting funny, or I’ve got a bad feeling about this crowd, we’re going to go to the alternate drop site. We’re going to go around the corner and drop around back or maybe wave off completely.

It really comes down to trusting, paying attention, being very intentional about situational awareness, and understanding what’s happening around you. And that’s more than just looking and paying attention. There’s a lot that goes into situational awareness. But understanding what is happening, understanding the environment, paying attention, and then being willing to act.

Do not let yourself be as a private individual. Don’t let yourself be, or your instincts will be overruled by what the rest of the people are doing. Most people will not react. Most people will wait and see what others are going to do. And in a critical situation, the most important thing is time.

If you can recognize and detect even a few seconds earlier than everybody else, that’s going to give you an exponentially greater chance of surviving what could become a very critical situation quickly. Allowing yourself the authority to act on your intuition and be a stakeholder in your own security is paramount.

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