What do celebrities like Piers Morgan, Tyler Perry, Paris Hilton, Simon Cowell, Ariana Grande, Kate Moss, Kim Kardashian, Rita Ora, Rihanna, Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Dorit Kemsley, Bella Thorn, Kelly McGillis, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Kanye West… (Yeah, the list is a bit long, isn’t it? Wait though, we’re not done yet…), Sandra Bullock, Selena Gomez, David and Victoria Beckham, Christine Quinn, P.Diddy, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox, Kelly Clarkson, Scott Disick, Kendall Jenner, Charlie Hunnam, Taylor Swift, Cara Delivingne, Kylie Jenner, Harry Styles (We’ll have to end the list here so we don’t spend the fill page just on names) have in common? I mean, besides the fame, careers, and money? All their homes have been broken into either by fans, stalkers, or burglars. In some cases, the victims were either inside their homes when this happened or entered the home to find the intruders there. And this, fellow practitioners, is where we come in!
”Piers Morgan and his wife were burgled while they slept in their French villa”
Besides the damages and the loss of valuables, cash, or assets that have enormous value, some of these victims are going to be scared forever. It is never easy for one to have his/her safe heaven, their home, broken into by others. Knowing that the place you consider the safest is not safe and seemingly anyone can target you, come closer to you, or steal from you, makes the victims feel vulnerable and unsafe and brings substantial levels of anxiety into their daily life. Having your privacy torn from you can leave mental and emotional scars that do not mend.
”A burglar has been found guilty of raiding the home of pop star Rita Ora while she and her sister slept upstairs. Charaf El Moudden, 26, took £200,000 worth of property from the former X Factor judge’s house during the burglary on 28 November last year. Her sister Elena was awoken by a man rifling through items in her bedroom, prompting Ora to call police.” BBC News
What’s even scarier is that many of these victims have families, and their children can be targeted as well. And if you think that only celebrities can be victims of having their homes broken into, think again. Many incidents show that other individuals such as C-Suite corporates, businessmen and businesswomen, as well as Royal Family members, have had their homes broken into. Florence Mirsky, Elton B. Stephens Jr, and the former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani are just a few examples.
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According to Vanity Fair ”David and Victoria Beckham were reportedly “shaken up” after a masked intruder broke into their home while they were asleep. The couple’s West London mansion was burglarized in late February. The pair and their 10-year-old daughter, Harper, were apparently asleep when the intruder broke in upstairs, only becoming aware of the invasion later. In the meantime, the burglar was able to quietly make off with thousands of pounds worth of their belongings. The Beckhams didn’t realize they’d been burglarized until their 17-year-old son, Cruz, came home later that night after an evening out with friends and discovered a ransacked spare bedroom with broken glass from where the window had been smashed in. Cruz alerted his father, who called the police. They then both went looking for the trespasser, but he was long gone by then with their designer goods and electronics.”
Reading all these names (who are just a small group considering the larger picture) you may ask: since they have the money, why can’t they protect their homes more efficiently?
One of the primary reasons is the all too common PROACTIVE vs REACTIVE security stance they take. This unfortunate view has become one of the leading factors in these types of circumstances. Many people, no matter what their financial background or celebrity status might be, will only take action and reach out for help AFTER an incident has taken place. They are convinced, either on their own or by friends and associates, that they don’t need that kind of protection, they’ll be fine, it won’t happen to them…Until it does.
Then, some may invest in a close protective detail, but not in a residential security team, and in doing so, will never learn what may be truly necessary.
Some interesting residential security facts brought up by the 2022 State of Safety report showed that although Americans believe that crime is on the rise, the use of property protection measures fell 6% between 2019 and 2020, and nearly 40% of American residents don’t use any kind of security measures to protect their home whatsoever.
What is Residential Security?
Residential security is a combination of technological measures, methods, and manpower to ensure the safety and security of a household (lives, valuables, privacy) and the assets and property that lie within its perimeter. Depending on the clients’ risk and threat factors (their security needs), it can be alarm systems, controlled access, guard dogs, physical residential security teams/guards (RST), drone coverage, or any combination of these tools.
A good residential security plan starts with a detailed, in-depth risk, threat, and vulnerability assessment. An expert should visit your residence and do a detailed physical survey to identify any weak points that will make it easier for someone to gain access to you or breach your privacy. The expert will be able to determine the seriousness of potential risks and the likelihood of an incident taking place, either due to what is discovered during the assessment or specific threats you have currently. He/she will consult with you on a plan and give their recommendations (upgrading the locks on windows and doors, upgrading the level of glass security, placing an alarm system and CCTV, hiring security guards, etc.) on how to mitigate any risk and/or threat factors and protect your property.
They can also identify the response time for first responders and law enforcement and do thorough research on your area’s criminal activities, crime rates/types, and even any known sex offenders’ presence in your surrounding neighborhood. So many families have small children, and knowing the potential risks in the surrounding area helps to mitigate any possible dangers to the children’s safety. During an estate risk, threat, and vulnerability assessment, they look for anything that can be harmful to you or disturb your life. A threat can be anything such as a natural disaster, fire incident, stalking and harassment, privacy violation, smash and grab theft, robbery, vehicle theft, or a serious physical attack such as a kidnapping, active home invasion when you’re home, or even murder.
Things to consider when establishing a Residential Security Team
A Residential Security Team is not established just because the client lives or spends the majority of their time at the said estate, a residential security team is placed for the safety of the premises even when the client is not home. Arriving home to find a violent individual in your home awaiting your return is no less disturbing than stopping one from coming in when you’re present in the home.
Most clients and security companies focus so much on protective details that they forget the importance of having a proper and balanced RST in place that will make sure the house, your belongings, and your privacy are protected 24/7. Most of the victims mentioned at the beginning of our article could have prevented what happened to them if they had put the needed importance on their RST teams. While a determined criminal might come in when you’re home, most will attempt their task when you’re away from the residence, and a mere security system with cameras only takes great pictures of them getting away, not stopping the loss of assets or the even more frightening possibility of someone waiting until you arrive home.
A Residential Security Team and the Protective Detail teams must cooperate and communicate with each other on a regular basis. They are two departments with the same goal, to keep the family safe. Either when the family is on the move or back at home. We’re highlighting the necessity of cooperation significantly because there seems to be competition at times between RST and Protective Details teams who don’t share information or report to each other as they should. Remember, as an RST, you have eyes on the property and around it; as a Protective Detail team, you have eyes on the client while in public or away. Many incidents would have been avoided if one team could pass on the information they found to the other. In the end, we all truly want the same thing…A safe and happy client and his family.
The training of your Residential Security Team is crucially important. You must have trained personnel who not only know every inch of your premises and all the needed procedures but also are trained and qualified for the job requirements. Make no mistake, a residential security team member is not just a uniform guard.
RST members are individuals who are responsible for a variety of functions such as:
Access control
Patrols
CCTV monitoring
Surveillance
Documenting and reporting
Emergency response
Providing real-time information about the surrounding area
Identifying suspicious behaviors and reporting them
Have a high level of customer service attitude
Conduct ongoing threat, risk, and vulnerability assessments
Follow up with SOPs
Work directly with household personnel, other security teams, and local law enforcement
Know how to use alarm and surveillance equipment
Can support event security operations
Mail screening
The residential security team is your first line of defense, and when they are truly professional, they can be a deterrent to anyone who may want to target your home.
When you’re vetting your Residential Security Team, there are a few steadfast rules to always keep in mind. Would you allow just anyone to be close to your family and friends? No, of course, you wouldn’t! Then why shouldn’t you be extremely careful during the vetting and hiring process of your residential security team? Known incidents have shown that ‘’strong castles fell from within’’, and many home break-ins have happened due to insider information.
When we deal with celebrities or people with specific wealth, insider threat is very real. Many of the break-ins happened because one of the residential security guards either committed the crime or made it easier/assisted the actual burglars. Vetting your security personnel is mandatory, a criminal background check should be done before hiring and be done again regularly at random after the initial hiring. An additional credit check is necessary to assure that your RST members are of sound financial background. There can be no room for any type of bribery or theft of the client’s assets due to an individual’s monetary indiscretion.
Driving records are crucial as the RST members may or may not have access to or need to move the client’s vehicles. And as much as it sounds ‘extremist,’ there MUST always be a background into anyone near the children or having regular interaction with the children. The world is no longer a safe place…Unless we make it that way. This is our task…This is our Craft. We have chosen this, and a Residential Security Team is a very necessary asset for the proper 24/7 protection of clients, property, assets, and even their very lives.
If you are interested in learning more about Residential Security or need a Residential Risk, Threat, and Vulnerability Assessment? contact us today at info@lemareschal.com