Did COVID make personal security more difficult?

Personal security is always challenging.  A myriad of action items must be considered: locale, known threats, travel routes, personnel, team coordination, timing, etc.

GSS top priority is the security of our clients.  COVID entered our planning as a distinct threat that had to be managed.   All planning meetings incorporated COVID security, affecting manpower, evolution planning, equipment and supplies, and required special expertise.

COVID affected virtually all items of our action planning and altered them for compliance with New York State guidelines.  Our clients’ social distancing, always carefully controlled due to security, had to be increased.   We had to ensure zero physical contact with third parties with a close eye to sanitation of commonly touched items.   Often our clients are preoccupied with business matters or image and needed to be observed for dangerous contact or proximity to possibly contaminated objects or people.

Sanitation of surfaces that might be touched by our clients was crucial.   GSS retained professional cleaning crews to sanitize limousines seats, door handles, arm rests, head rests, windows, and light switches.   Vehicles used were provided with hand sanitizer and wipes.   An adequate supply of surgical masks was available.   Similarly, all private aircraft used were sanitized, and aircraft crews were briefed on COVID security guidelines and procedures.  Guards accompanying clients carried sanitizers, and back up masks.

Advance GSS personnel would ensure meeting rooms were arranged in strict compliance with NYC social distancing guidelines.    GSS provided temperature sensors at entrances to meeting rooms, with various layers of security

Each planned greeting scenario, meeting facility, presentation room or auditorium was prescreened and brought into compliance.  Attendees to meetings or events were required to fill out the NYC-required questionnaire regarding COVID symptoms, exposure to COVID infected people, previous infection, and immunization history.

A typical evolution from an event entrance to or from limousine presents security challenges.  With COVID in mind all efforts were made by GSS to arrange for this evolution as private as possible, to minimize close contact with the public.  In those instances where privacy was impossible, GSS had extra manpower to significantly increase the spacing of the corridor from vehicle to doorway.

New York City has had a total of over 748000 confirmed and probable cases of COVID.  Statistically there were distinct probabilities of clients coming in proximity with infected individuals, either by common surfaces or airborne infected droplets.  The threat was widespread and needed to be considered at all locations and all times.

GSS utilized decades of experience in planning and execution to incorporate the COVID threat into security planning.   The results were highly successful.  Our clients were protected against all threats, including COVID, through the entire year of our COVID-affected operations.   

GSS demonstrated that incorporating COVID threats into the general threat landscape in personal security missions, results in threat mitigation and successful mission planning and execution.

Our clients can depend on GSS protection at any location, any time, for any duration.