Approximately 1.5 years ago, our boutique physical security services agency Premier Risk Solutions began the process of opening up an office in the State of California to best serve our client’s needs. Through the navigation of a myriad of legal counsel for the best direction forward along with a lot of patience, we are proud to announce that our President and CEO, Michael Delamere, is also now Co-Founder and CEO of ShieldIQ Executive Security (CA Private Patrol Operator License # 121786).
Along with our Co-Founder and COO, Ben Astafa, who is also CEO of Illyria Security Corp, ShieldIQ has a physical office located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale, CA. ShieldIQ offers a full line of boutique physical security services including security guarding, mobile patrol, special event security, executive protection, security drivers, residential security, security consulting, fully embedded positions, and protective intelligence. From strategy through implementation, our boutique nature allows us to work within a company’s culture to keep everyone safe and at ease.
The management teams of PRS and ISC bring deep industry experience of over 150 years of collective private security service to clients.
For inquiries, please reach out to michael@SiqExecSecurity.com and/or ben@SiqExecSecurity.com.
The world we find ourselves living in today is filled with turmoil, conflict, and disruption. Early indicators show that Y2022 is proving to be disruptive on many levels. Current global conditions have created geopolitical divisiveness coming from such countries as Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and Canada. Global security concerns present other countries facing immediate danger of civil war, protesting, civil unrest, food insecurity, critical infrastructure/energy, economic, pandemic/infectious disease outbreaks, cyber/IT, and terrorism-related challenges.
Furthermore, the current Russian-Ukraine crisis in Eastern Europe has created the possibility of economic stagflation, increased energy/oil prices, and supply chain management challenges. Russia’s waging war on Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis not seen since World War 2. Russia’s full-court press for a land-grab situation to mine additional resources (fossil fuels and other minerals) is naturally a disaster to the Ukrainians who wish to remain an independent nation of peaceful people. Ukraine remains steadfast in its resolve to fight back against a much larger, more powerful nation-state in Russia, which is building parallels in their government and global actions reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s Cold War years of the past.
With the US mid-term elections approaching this November, there exists increased anxiety along with disruption to household incomes. Considering the global pandemic, organizations have been faced with the Great Resignation, with workers being highly selective on work-life balance while safeguarding their personal and mental health and managing their self-care. Recent events have further caused labor staffing challenges for most businesses, creating bottlenecks and supply chain interruptions with organizations and their products available to consumers as well increased wages and other associated costs. This has forced organizations to be ever mindful of their personnel and their impacts on the overall organization’s health, welfare, and vitality. This has caused disruption to the organization’s overall strategic mission, goals, and objectives. Managing risks in this situation includes organizational morale, employee empowerment, corporate budget impacts, and operational/financial risks involved in evacuating or displacing staff or employee family members.
Premier Risk Solutions has borne first-hand witness to the situation on the ground in Ukraine that is impacting locales as well as, by extension, family members who are living and working outside of the country but concerned for the well-being of their family. While the clients we have supported within Ukraine do not have full-time employees within the country, their employees have family members there, and/or the client has vendor partners in-country they work with. These situations have caused disruption to the business as the personnel are unable to focus on their work or in some cases do any work at all, further causing supply chain delays to the company. Companies are forced to decide on what level of support they can or are willing to provide to personnel who are not direct employees. Our clients who we’ve worked with directly on this issue to evacuate impacted personnel are treating them as one-off situations but have provided support for evacuation when and where appropriate based on a dynamic risk assessment of the situation. Premier Risk Solutions and our agents are also constantly evaluating opportunities through our own fluid risk assessment for avenues of egress for evacuation as it is evolving on a day-by-day basis.
The threat continuum is ever-evolving and is constantly changing based upon a multitude of security challenges. The need for organizations to create an enterprise risk security management, holistic approach to safeguarding their personnel, brand, assets, and vendor supply chain is paramount in meeting today’s challenges. Organizations are well served by conducting – at minimum – annual risk assessments while conducting normal business activities during this time of uncertainty. Should your organization require a consultation please reach out to Premier Risk Solutions for a free consultation.
How can we prevent major violent incidents from occurring? Being proactive is the best means of doing so, as we all know. With budgets constantly being challenged for resources from within the organization, corporate security department heads need to determine where their budgetary funds are best utilized in providing value to and enabling the business. Enter TipNow Pro out of Silicon Valley in California, where founder Cyril Rayan has developed a tool that acts as an extension of your existing program to deliver a proactive means of identifying threatening situations or items through anonymous reporting as well as integrated video analytics.
Cyril developed the technology after the Virginia Tech college campus active shooter incident at a time when he himself was a professor. In its current iteration of the tool, it utilizes both human capital and integrated video analytics to report on threats. It is the very definition of “see something, say something”. The human capital component through anonymous self-reporting in live streaming, SMS texting, voice tips, and mobile app tips, allows for the pre-defined administrators from the client company to receive notifications in “real-time” for assessment of appropriate action to be taken.
The integrated video analytics component allows for the identification of weapons, license plates, and intrusion in an automated manner. As a two-way system, it’s both people and technology working in tandem that allow further agility within the corporate security department in being proactive in augmenting their current security posture.
Premier Risk Solutions sat down with the founder of TipNow, Cyril Rayan, and had a brief discussion on his technology and how it can enable business, providing the value that so many department heads seek. He discusses some of the content written here but also shares a case study example of how the technology benefited a client in the best way possible. Have a listen! Please contact us should you have any questions.
As the world is evolving into more uncertain times in society, having a means of centered communications in a way a company can aid in proving a duty of care to their employees and contingent staff is of paramount importance. That is the reason for the existence of a GSOC. The integrated adoption of technologies with a combination of human capital to monitor and respond to alerts, developing intelligence, emergency phone calls, asset tracking, travel advisories, or other related systems notifications allow for quick response capabilities in triaging the situation. Being agile, consistent, reliable, and adopting new tasks are pivotal to support business operational needs.
In Premier Risk Solutions’ protective operations, we work with our partners at NSSG Global in Bucharest, Romania to provide remote support capabilities. With 24/7 dedicated GSOC operators, integrated network video, alarm & access control systems, telephonic response & escalation, along with protective intelligence analysts there is a holistic approach and execution to support field operations. As part of the service, we have rolled out an app that can be found in the Apple or Android stores that is called NSSG Support. We want to take an opportunity to showcase this further in this blog.
The purpose of the app is for personnel in the field – both business travelers/principals and our agents supporting them – to be able to not only provide safety check-ins but share pictures from your gallery and even snapshot one with your current location, chat with our GSOC operators with any questions or issues, as well as provide an urgent SOS signal to our GSOC operators to escalate imminently for garnering assistance to the individual.
Home Screen
The screenshot enclosed is directly pulled from the app, where “Send SOS” is located at the top. With “Tracking” turned on, we can get an accuracy of the individual’s location inside of 30ft and in some cases closer. You can also see in the enclosed screenshots where an individual can chat directly with the GSOC or an agent supporting the individual can also do the very same providing updates or requests for assistance. We do have our agent resources located on a map that is run in the GSOC to know who the closest assets are for deployment in an emergency. The “Send SOS” signal goes to one dedicated device with a phone number, with email notifications additionally permissible for redundant receipts.
Groupings can be set up for any number of individuals within an organization. There can be an unlimited number of groupings. Each grouping can have an email disseminated to the assigned representative from the company for any/all relevant activity desired. Should a company desire more regular reporting, the GSOC on the back end can administratively export chats, tracking info, etc collected data to share with our client.
Setting up a new user account typically takes approximately five (5) minutes time for our GSOC managers to get operational. Collaborating with your company representative, we can scale quickly to meet more volume needs as well. Knowing where your staff are and getting them expedient, qualified assistance is of the utmost importance. Should your company like a demo of the tool to learn more, we are happy to schedule a time to do so.
The main theme here is the attention to detail, quality assurance, and custom/tailored approach Premier Risk Solutions takes to ensure we reflect your brand reputation and integrity. Remaining agile to service your evolving needs, being responsive to your requests, and being consistent and reliable in our service delivery are hallmarks we strive for in each engagement. In all things we do, we provide comfort to your principals while balancing privacy and confidentiality with safety and security. We will be highly collaborative in our boutique offerings. Please contact us should you like to discuss your unique situation.
Following the protective services offerings PRS has been engaged in with our clients since the company began in early 2014, we began in late Q3 2021 exploring how we can further enhance our service offerings to our clients in the areas of:
We are proud to announce that we are operational in each of these areas! Our partnership with NSSG Global allows for our dedicated services in Protective Intelligence and Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) to support our ongoing and new prospective clients for their protective operations.
In Protective Intelligence, a high-level snapshot of capabilities include:
Flexible and Agile to Scale to your needs
24/7 Dedicated Analysts
Custom, tailored research, analysis, and reporting of threats to staff and properties
Guide executive protection team members and client personnel in planning, protecting and responding to operations
In Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) support services, a high-level snapshot of capabilities include:
Flexible and Agile to Scale to your needs
24/7 Dedicated, Highly Trained Operators
Command, Control & Communication Flow
GPS Tracking Capabilities
Integrated Network Video, Access Control & Alarm System Monitoring
Multi-Linguistic Capabilities
The Protective Intelligence Analysts and Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) personnel are all co-located out of Bucharest, Romania in a secure location with the latest available high-speed broadband and network abilities. Being co-located allows for as near “real-time” information flow to PRS support operations and our clients. The personnel at the center are adaptable to tools preferred or required by our clients, which depending on the tool may require additional license fees beyond our standard package offerings.
Our Medic personnel is resourced from our local healthcare partners in the market of need throughout the U.S. They can either be full-time, dedicated staff members to a client or temporary needs for specific events or activities like board meetings or larger special events like a sales kickoff or tradeshow. The medic training packages offered include:
Short 1-4 hour refresher/tac-med skills driven
One Day, up to 12 students with 2 instructors, skills & scenario based training outside (class is POST, DHS & EMSA approved)
Two Day, up to 12 students with 2 instructors, Tactical Medical Operator (TMO) training (class is POST, DHS & EMSA approved)
Five Day, up to 20 students with 2 instructors and 4 skill/proctor instructors, Tactical Medical Technician (TMT) training (some medical training pre-requisites; class is NAEMT, POST and EMSA approved), with TECC certification included
Program Development Consulting: Advising on best practices for medical preparedness, preventions, early interventions, gear selection, travel medicine programs, and emergency medical response.
The medic training can be delivered to our client in-house and/or contingent staff (vendors), along with providing to our own team members.
