Training in executive protection could certainly be considered a postmodern activity, since in it fantasy and imagination prevail over reality. This profession is also probably the only one in which protectors are trained in something they may never employ in their working life, while the things that are, or should be, performed on a daily basis are not part of a curriculum in most training institutions.
We say that escort training is dominated by the "95 Fallacy," where 95 % of training time is devoted to activities that 95 % of operators will never perform in their lifetime, and, if they ever do, they will fail 95 % of the time, regardless of their level of preparedness.
The training market for this discipline has become an amusement park. The training courses for escorts are, in general, spectacular: all kinds of weapons are fired, sometimes from moving vehicles or charging the main one; all kinds of body and motor maneuvers are performed; there are crashes and, sometimes, even vehicles are burned; "karatazos" are given, or rescues and scenes that not even Hollywood has managed to recreate are simulated. The rule is simple: the more spectacle, the more sales.
Of course, we all enjoy these events very much; however, the executive protection is not Disneyland for security agents, but a very serious profession where the lives of executives, escorts and citizens in general are at stake at all times.
This type of training is not only not very helpful in the operation, since the measures taught therein have an effectiveness in real conditions of only 5 %, but also partially harmful, since in many occasions it leads to failure. This, first of all, because it favors a reactive approach by reducing the strategy to only waiting for an ambush to react, where the chances of the protectors are minimal or null.
On the other hand, the "amusement park" becomes the only response to all kinds of situations, which has generated great damage and has also claimed lives. The famous escort of the singer Lucero pulled out his gun against journalists, generating a great scandal. He was "crucified" in the media, but not all the blame was his. If he was taught that his only tool is the gun, without teaching him other methods, the only thing he will use in any kind of adverse situation is the gun.
Adolfo Lagos' armed driver unintentionally killed his protégé while defending him from an assault by shooting while driving. This action looks great in the "amusement park", but, in real life, it turned out to be tragic. Something similar happened during the assault on Sergio "Checo" Perez's bodyguard, where a protector was seriously wounded.
With this training, making a show in real life becomes something aspirational for the protector, who sometimes seeks out and even provokes this type of event to bring about the situation he fantasizes about during the training, only that, in reality, the genre of the film changes from a successful thriller to a great tragedy.
Of course I do not mean to say that this type of training is useless, or that it should not be implemented. It is clear that the protector must know the reactive measures in the same way that a pilot practices how to deal with various emergencies in a simulator. The big problem is that the executive protection are not and should not be emergencies, but rather how to avoid them.
This is why training in executive protection should be mastered by the 45-45-10 rule; that is, 45 % of the training time should be focused on mastering the knowledge and skills that are used in the daily work of a protector, another 45 % should be focused on mastering the strategies and practices that allow us to avoid risky situations, while the remaining 10 % should be focused on handling emergencies. Only in this way can we achieve a safer profession for both executives and protectors.
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