Political attacks | How bodyguards intervene

They rush toward danger and react instantly. Images of bodyguards throwing themselves at Donald Trump to protect him have highlighted the critical role of these elite agents. The Press spoke to experts from the RCMP, the Sûreté du Québec, the Montreal police and the private sector to understand how to protect a politician during an attack.

Prepare the premises

In the United States, the Secret Service, the agency responsible for protecting presidents and major presidential candidates, does a huge amount of preparation work before public events.

“They can weld manholes in the street, remove mailboxes as vehicles pass by, deploy drones to fly over the area,” says Claude Sarrazin, president of the Sirco group, a private security firm in Quebec that offers close protection services and sometimes works for politicians and other public figures.

“It’s very different from Canada,” adds Calvin Lawrence, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer who provided close protection to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush during their visits to Canada.

“In our country, when the prime minister travels, people can usually still approach. We do less isolation. When the American president travels, the streets are all closed, people who want to approach often have to go through metal detectors, maybe sniffer dogs,” he explains.

Preparations for a public appearance by an elected official or candidate under protection, in Canada or the United States, also include establishing multiple evacuation routes, a predetermined route to a hospital and a secure retreat room at the event site, in case it is not possible to leave the premises safely.

Secure the customer

We saw it Saturday: if gunshots are heard, each member of the security services springs into action, with a specific task to accomplish. “It’s like a ballet where each person has a job to do. When you’ve practiced it enough, it happens naturally,” explains a former member of the Sûreté du Québec, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about his work.

“Their movements are very well orchestrated and have been rehearsed hundreds of times,” says Jeff Marquart, general director of Crisis 24 – Private Strategic Group, a division of the Montreal multinational Garda.

A priority is to surround the client to obstruct the shooter’s view and form a physical protective barrier, says the expert, who has 25 years of experience protecting influential people.

“The primary goal is for officers to place their bodies between the client and the shooter, physically shielding the client with their own bodies. Officers in this role will almost certainly be wearing body armor, and clients often will as well. That’s the known nature of the job and one of the many reasons why it’s not a good fit for everyone,” he says.

“The best example is the attack on President Ronald Reagan. One of the Secret Service agents took a bullet for the president,” adds Claude Sarrazin.

The crowding of bodyguards in a melee around the politician can also cause confusion among the attackers, says the president of Sirco. “Often, we will see someone with the same build, the same hair color, the same clothing, near the client, to create confusion in the mind of the killer and disrupt his vision,” he explains.

Mr. Marquart also notes that the agents initially pushed Trump to duck behind the podium. “In most cases, with people protected at this level, the podium is bulletproof, to provide a place to take cover,” he notes.

Rather than using just their bodies as a barrier, some bodyguards also carry a briefcase that can be deployed as a ballistic shield and act as a screen in front of the person they are protecting.

Once the client is secure, the priority is to move them away from danger.

Neutralize the threat

As officers crowd in and form a barrier around the politician, others are tasked with fighting back and neutralizing the attacker.

“There are emergency response teams that will go into this, which you could think of as SWAT teams, and they train at a much higher level than the average police officer, for high-risk interventions,” Lawrence said.

On Saturday, during Donald Trump’s rally, images showed the entry into action of a sniper perched on a roof, assisted by a lookout.

“It’s often done by two or even three people. There’s a spotter, an observer, who has a much broader vision than the one holding the weapon. It’s not as easy as in the movies, finding where the suspect is. Especially in a crowd with lots of noise,” explains a police officer from the Montreal Police Department, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the advanced training he received.