The Cost of Security

How do you secure a candidate? What are the nuts and bolts? Is it just setting up a perimeter?
It's having the good contacts, a good liaison with local police, providing close-in security so that you are within arm's reach of the protectee should someone decide that they want to do something to either hurt him or embarrass him. It's always good to have local law enforcement there, because nine out of 10 times, they're going to know somebody in the crowd from a prior experience or prior run-in … It's not always somebody who wants to hurt the person. It's a lot of times people [who] want to gain attention. This individual who [was] at the Clinton campaign office, he knew for a fact that Hillary wasn't there today. But he [was] making a statement.

Do you know for a fact he knew she wasn't there?
Well, most people do a certain amount of homework ... Without knowing anything that's going on other than what I see on TV, he wants to make a statement. He's a local fellow. He's from that town. He's using this as the forum to get his message out or to make his statement, whatever it is. Sometimes you find out this really has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with a personal issue, but he's using this because he knows it's media sensitive.

Even after both parties choose their nominees, the Secret Service would not extend protection to various state campaign headquarters, right?
Exactly. You have to imagine how many campaign offices there are nationwide. To secure them with the Secret Service would just be all-consuming. So you rely on the local police. Even there, there's not much you can do full time. If you have an inkling there might be some trouble, you might hire off-duty police to stand at the door. But even that is pushing it a little because you do want to be accessible.

[When you were protecting Obama,] was there an assessment of every venue made? Would stopping by a diner in Iowa be considered less of a charged atmosphere than 10,000 people at a rally?
Yes. Especially if it was off the record and spontaneous, it would be less of a concern for security, because anybody intent on harming him wouldn't have the time to set up. So if you do address a crowd of 10,000 people and it has received publicity, that would be a situation where you call in additional resources.

Did you go everywhere with him?
You give him space. It was based on where we were, the comfort level.

Is protection getting more expensive?
Yes, as technology goes up, your cost goes up. As travel goes up. It's just the economy. If you think about the day-to-day things that go into protection--hotel rooms, travel and so on and so forth--the cost goes up.

© 2007