The Unseen Obvious Tell

By Dale L. June

One day while watching former president Trump with his protective detail on a news segment I saw and realized something I had never put much thought into before.

The reason was that I was so accustomed to seeing it, having once been a practitioner of it. The observation was that the obvious giveaway or “tell” makes it apparent which members of a protectee’s entourage is a protective agent. It brought me to think of something I began to ask many years ago and addressed in the 1998 first edition of Introduction to Executive Protection. “Who Watches the Watchers?” My conclusion then and now is “Everyone!” However, in this case, many don’t actually see what I recognized.

Whenever I see a protective detail, be it the Secret Service, a protector escorting a rock star, or a high-level businessperson such as Elon Musk or Bill Gates in the news, I always look to see if I can spot the agents, and I am convinced many other people do also. Some people watch from the comfort of their living room chair and have thoughts and opinions of the protectors based of their degree of experience, while some have aspirations of being a protector.

Now consider the person who is planning an attack. He/ She/They watch and learn to identify the protective posture, while planning procedures to neutralize the agents. This would include identifying and counting how many they are, and their positioning. To the trained eye, there are certain telltale signs they might look for.

• Earpieces…. Check

• Sunglasses… Check

• Sleeve Mic. … Check

• Lapel pin…. Check

• Serious face (scowl or grimace) ….. Check

• Head slowly turning left to right…. Check

• Hands at belt buckle level or straight down the side…. Check

• Knees slightly bent….. Check

• Feet shoulder width apart (when standing still)….. Check

• Positioning….. Check

Observation is much more than surveillance, seeing, or watching. It is recognizing what you are seeing. It is seeing the extraordinary from the ordinary. To really see something is to recognize what we are seeing as our input (based on our experience, memory, intuition, imagination, etc) and to react accordingly. Observation is to notice everything unusual and out of the ordinary in everyday life. If, however, something has been seen so often it becomes ordinary and expected, it thus becomes invisible. We think in routines and patterns.

After becoming accustomed to routines and patterns, we no longer see things that fall into the same pattern and routine dayafter-day. Because the mind and eyes are habituated, what has been seen as routine becomes imperceptible. An example is the route you take from home to work every day. You pass certain landmarks, signs, buildings, etc. One day you see something and are amazed and wonder how long that object has been there. Further inspection reveals it has been there for years, perhaps decades.

We all see things differently and form a perspective, a point of view, or an observation. The conclusion we arrive at is influenced by association of ideas of what things should look like and what is expected of a certain image. The mental image formed of a protective agent that observers receive is from a perspective of seeing protective agent stereotypes in movies, news media, and in person close quarters. Agents unconsciously manage and reenforce the stereotypical image by maintaining a profile of what outsiders expect to see in an agent’s dress, demeanor, and attentive attention to detail.

There are things (all mentioned in the second paragraph above) that are customary and well known in most protective assignments and are standard throughout the entire field of close protective operations, yet they can be altered by simple conscious decisions of eliminating many of the image depictions.

However, the most obvious telltale sign a person is a protection agent accompanying a protectee is one that cannot for, practical purposes, easily be changed.

“ Even in inclement weather, the protectors will leave his overcoat unbuttoned and open as a buttoned jacket hinders or could even prevent, access to the agent’s sidearm. ”

Most often agents are dressed in suits, sportscoats, or casual jackets, depending on the circumstances and setting. In many instances the employer (protectee) is a high-profile businessperson and wants the security team to take a low-key, covert approach. He or she may even introduce the agents to his staff as temporary consultants or business associates. Perhaps he arranges to have security have an office nearby his office and to walk with him and to attend business meetings.

However even with intentionally lowering the profile, I could spot the protectors because they were the only ones in the group whose suit jackets are not buttoned. Even in inclement weather, the protectors will leave his overcoat unbuttoned and open as a buttoned jacket hinders or could even prevent, access to the agent’s sidearm.

Through habit, training and necessity, something as small as an unbuttoned or unzipped jacket can be an unconscious indicator of their role in that particular environment which an adversary can use to identify and develop countermeasures. The takeaway for me, is when we are doing it, are we intentional in our actions? If not, then the obvious continues to remain invisible in its ordinariness.

Dale June is a former U.S. Secret Service Agent assigned to the Presidential Protective Division at the White House plus serving in the Sacramento and San Diego field Offices and holds a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice is from George Washington University. He currently teaches at National University, Los Angeles and is the author/co-author of nine books about protection and Homeland Security/Terrorism

Circuit Magazine

Categories

Social Footprints