Former Secret Service Agent, Presidential Protection, Security Expert, International, South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton) Security Negligence, Executive Protection, Expert Witness Testimony, Audio Countermeasures, Anti-Wiretapping, Private Investigations, Private Detective, Security Consulting – J.A. LaSorsa & Associates

Joseph A. LaSorsa, President & CEO of J. A. LASORSA & ASSOCIATES, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT, Presidential Protection – the White House, providing worldwide discreet Executive Protection, Bodyguard, Physical Security Services and Training to corporate executives, dignitaries, the public, and celebrities. Operating out of our home base in south Florida, our firm’s Security Services include, but are not limited to: Estate & Yacht Security, Systems and Safe Room – Design and & Construction, Corporate, Workplace Violence, School Violence, School Security Consulting & Training and Counter Eavesdropping & Industrial Espionage & general Audio Counter-Measures.

Thursday, March 27. 2008

EXECUTIVE PROTECTION AGENT, BODYGUARD TRAINING – FLORIDA, NEW YORK CITY

EXECUTIVE PROTECTION BODYGUARD Agent Training by FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT:

If you are interested in obtaining training and doing some networking at the same time, and are interested in Executive Protection training as done in the private sector, please go to https://www.lasorsa.com/bodyguard-training.htm (my bodyguard training page) for all the course information. It includes: course content, availability, registration and payment information.

Providing Global Services: Executive Protection Training, Security Expert Witness, Anti-Wiretap and Audio Countermeasures, Consulting, Investigations, Personal and Executive Protection; Estate & Yacht Security Systems & Consulting and Training & Intervention Services. As Seen and Featured: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Daily Business Journal; Millionaires, Robb Report, DuPont Registry Magazines

Folks, Mr. Joe LaSorsa is a former US Secret Service Agent, a member of this group and a personal friend. He is too modest to tell you about his intense, 3 day training based on US Secret Service principles himself so, I am spreading the word for him.

I have taken this class and let me tell you: Joe’s class is intense. Students receive real-world experience and learn exactly what high-end clients expect of professional Executive Protection. Surprisingly, you may learn that high-end EP client expectations differ significantly from what you may have learned elsewhere. Not only will you learn what high-end clients expect from EP, you will learn HOW TO FIND CLIENTS and how to keep them.

Joe’s class will be held on Oct. 26th, 27th & 28th (Weds., Thurs. & Fri.) from 8:30am-5pm at the Hampton Inn, Orlando-International Airport, 5767 T.G. Lee Blvd., Orlando, Florida, 32822

Hotel Tel: (407) 888-2995
Fax: (407) 888-2418

This is a link to Joe’s  website where you register for the Executive Protection training class.

Donna’s tip o’ the day: When you find a former Secret Service Agent with over 20 experience, who has protected numerous US Presidents, Vice Presidents and Heads of State, who is generous enough to share his secretes for success, TAKE THE CLASS!

Author:
Donna Smith
President / CEO -All Pro Legal Investigations, P.A. and Owner, All Protection & Security
Orlando, Florida Area

CHICAGO – SUMMIT SECURITY

BY DON BABWIN

CHICAGO (AP) _ A day after President Barack Obama announced that his hometown would host simultaneous NATO and G-8 summits next spring, few details were available about who would attend and how many protesters might follow. But former U.S. Secret Service Agent Joseph LaSorsa said there is one thing that’s certain. “You can safely say that during that time Chicago is going to be the safest city on the planet,” said LaSorsa, a security expert with his own company in Florida.

Talk to LaSorsa and others, and the consensus is that by the time Obama and new Mayor Rahm Emanuel welcome world leaders to their hometown, countless security measures big and small will already have been put in place in a city already known for one of the most extensive camera surveillance systems in the country.

From tracking the movements of terrorists to crawling down manholes to ensure explosives aren’t hidden to removing newspaper racks _ or anything else that could be thrown, set fire to or used to hide a bomb _ officials will have spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours planning for any threat they can imagine.

Nothing is too big in an effort that will involve world leaders, hundreds of entourage members and dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. And nothing is too small, as Chicago Police showed before the Democratic National Convention in 1996 when a commander sent crews to smear grease on statues in Grant Park to make sure that protesters could not climb them, as they did during the violence-marred 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The stakes could not be higher for the nation’s third largest city which will become the first American city other than Washington, D.C. to host the NATO Summit.

“There’s always some terrorist group that would love to get a bomb in there or assassinate a national leader,” said John Thompson, a security expert in Canada.

It’s almost certain that the summits will be a magnet for protesters, something Seattle learned in 1999 when 50,000 protesters shut down meetings of the World Trade Organization as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets during rioting that resulted in 600 arrests and $3 million in property damage.

Still, the summits are a coup for new Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who in his effort to pull the city out of desperate financial straits, pushed for hosting the meetings with Vice President Joe Biden when Biden attended his inauguration in May.

“From a city perspective, this will be an opportunity to showcase what is great about the greatest city in the greatest country,” said Emanuel, who added that the summits offer what he called an “unprecedented” chance for economic investment and job creation for the city.

To pull it off, though, millions of dollars will have to be spent. That was Georgia’s experience when it hosted the G-8 Summit in several locations in 2004.

“There were more public safety resources committed to it than have been seen in anything for us going back to the Civil War,” said Sgt. David Gay of the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department.

Crews were dispatched to ring key buildings with fences, put up concrete barriers or build checkpoints. Investigators were dispatched to check out the smallest tip or keep tabs on protesters, like the detectives who showed up at a real estate office to look at the contract a protest group had signed to rent a conference hall. And there were the training sessions in which officers were drilled on spotting suspicious things like water bottles that contained ice _ which, if hurled at a police officer could cause serious injury.

Gay said they were also trained to be to look closely to see which protesters walked stiffly or wore clothes too bulky for the hot weather, possible signals that they had put cardboard under their clothes to serve as body armor for non-body piercing bullets riot police use. At the same time, police in riot gear trained in parks in preparation for the protesters that have been a part of these meetings _ particularly after what happened in Seattle in 1999. By the time the summit was held on Georgia’s coast, there were thousands of police officers and National Guard troops patrolling roadways and bridges, or manning gunboats.

Gay said there were so many law enforcement officials involved, that what few protesters did show up were almost outnumbered by undercover officers. “When they did march, (police officers) were able to influence where they went.”

They also foiled the efforts of not-so-smart crooks who tried to commit crimes while the summit was being held. “We had some poor soul trying to commit a robbery one night and there must have been 12-15 police cars there,” he said chuckling.

Whether officers drill in Chicago remains to be seen, but the department has a head start when it comes to security, starting with a still growing camera surveillance system that former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has called the most extensive and integrated network of its kind in the nation. Further, events like election night in 2008 in Grant Park when thousands of people poured into Grant Park to see the newly-elected president and this year’s visit to the city by the president of China have become almost routine.

“These went off without a hitch,” said former Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

When you think of the city of Miami, Florida and the profession of private investigator, you typically see a lot of chases, gunshots, beautiful kidnapped models, and wacky side kicks. The thing is, that is what movies and television would have you believe that the life of a Miami Private Investigator is like. The truth is a little less exciting. While a Miami PI plays a vital part in a variety of different cases, said cases typically don’t have to do with kidnapped supermodels and international jewel smuggling. For the most part, a private investigators work centers around such things as missing persons, infidelity, surveillance, insurance fraud, workers compensation cases, etc. While it may not be as exciting as what you see on television, a Miami PI is perfect is you need information and you need it now.

Both private and public entities hire PI’s to do work. Police agencies and security firms tend to hire a Miami Private Investigator because they are able to get information that other’s can’t seem to. Most of this information is there for people to find, but only a experienced private investigator will be able to find. For the most part, a lot of these cases have to do with missing person’s. These aren’t always kidnapped people, but instead those who skipped town on bail or on things like alimony or child payments.

When it comes to private entities hiring a Miami Private Investigator, the gambit runs from individuals who may think that their mate is having an affair, or companies that think that an employee may be taking advantage of workers comp or insurance. Companies lose billions of dollars per year on workers compensation and insurance fraud. That’s enough money to double and triple check each case. If they feel like something is up with a particular case, they will typically have a PI on retainer that they will send out to servile the person they think is cheating the company. This is completely legal, and because it is so widespread, it’s vital to most companies out there.

If you are looking to get the services of a Miami Private Investigator go online to get more information. In a big city like Miami you have a wide variety of options so make sure that you do your research.

Whenever you see a private investigator on television, they are typically living the exciting high life where they uncover a terrorist plot, find the missing person, and then get the girl at the end. The life of a true Fort Lauderdale Private Investigator is not that exciting, at least not in regards to what you see on television With that said, though, private investigator’s do play a big role in a large amount of cases out there. Whether it’s a missing person’s case, surveillance, insurance fraud or workers compensation fraud, people call up a private investigator for a variety of different cases. If you are one of those people who needs a private investigator you will also find that there are a good amount of options out there. The key is finding one that specializes in the field that you need.

One of the main reasons why a company would contact a Fort Lauderdale Private Investigator is for insurance or workers compensation fraud. If someone claims that they were hurt on the job and they are getting paid for staying at home and recovering because they “can’t do what is required of them”, may companies out there will hire a private investigator to make sure that everything is “kosher”. It’s not so much a trust issue, it’s the fact that so many of these cases end up being some type of fraud that if you think anything is up it is always better to be safe then sorry.

Another big part of a Fort Lauderdale Private Investigator’s work load has to do with missing persons. Now, this isn’t solely the missing person’s cases that you see on television, they cases typically have a lot more to do with people who have skipped out of town after a court course, or have not been moving from state to state so that they don’t have to pay child or spousal support. This isn’t necessarily “exciting” work, but it is something that is important, especially when it comes to bringing people to justice.

If you are in the market for a Fort Lauderdale Private Investigator for whatever reason, go online to find information on what you need to look for and what your options are. It may take a little research, but you will find what you need.

Different Types of Bodyguard Services

Bodyguard services are meant to provide utmost security to VIP contingents as well as to important individuals in their own right. These personal guards are considered an essential and often classy part of an entourage involving the individual being protected. That is why there are different types of these security details which are offered by many reputable companies that provide strong men with diverse protective abilities.

A DUI Attorney San Diego advised, the different bodyguard services include those who offer personal escorts to personalities in different capacities. These provide close surveillance to their important charges such as business moguls, heads of state as well as delegates in another country. The other facilitation that is given in this form is that of security chauffeurs who act in the same vein as personal guards while in the line of duty as the person’s driver. This often happens in government circles as well as in highly sensitive private entities.

There are also bodyguard services that are statutory in nature and form a part of a large escort. These are employed by one company and are supposed to be on close duty when accompanying a personality who is deemed to become a possible target to criminals or snipers. The most celebrated form of this form of protection is the one which acts as protection unit to a VIPs in various capacities. They mount a security unit either as professional chauffeurs or permanent security people said a best San Diego DUI Lawyer.

Different bodyguard services are provided to important people in many walks of life traversing both the private and public sectors. The companies provide select personnel who can form a part of an enlarged security detail or act as confidential personal guards. These are trained in the most professional ways and can be relied upon by people in need of guards from not only private companies but also individuals and government officers.

by Lisa Lerer

Being a high-powered executive may not be financially risky, but it’s certainly dangerous. Or at least, that’s a reasonable conclusion based on the millions some companies spend protecting their top brass.

Executive compensation reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the past several months revealed exactly how much companies spend to protect their top executives. According to the filings, some take security seriously, outfitting “C-level” employees with cars, planes and home alarm systems. Others skimp on safety costs, paying nominal amounts for minimal security systems.

Leading the pack is Oracle, which spent $1.8 million protecting Chief Executive Larry Ellison last year–a 40% increase from the year before. And that sum doesn’t even cover all of Ellison’s security costs: The billionaire also spent his own money installing top-of-the-line security systems in his Malibu and Woodside, Calif., estates.

Other technology companies aren’t quite as generous–or as paranoid. Google spent $532,755 protecting Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and $33,196 on founder Larry Page’s transportation, logistics and personal security. And the company spent nothing on co-founder Sergey Brin’s security.

So is Ellison in more danger then Google’s famous founders? Not necessarily, say security experts. Most likely, they argue, neither company is fully disclosing their security spending, but are instead folding some of them into expenses that aren’t listed in SEC filings. “Those executives are most likely not revealing their high-end costs,” says Bruce Alexander, president of executive protection consulting firm All Source Consulting Group. “I would guess that they are under-reporting.”

And Page and Brin may be an exception: More and more frequently, large companies are accepting security expenditures as a necessary cost of doing business. They figure that their top executives are some of the company’s most valuable assets, and they want to treat them accordingly. As Ford Motor explained in its April proxy report, “the benefits of providing these programs outweigh the relatively minor costs associated with them.” Ford spent $1 million last year protecting its top executives and members of the Ford family.

Corporations aren’t the only ones worried about security. Americans spent about $25.9 billion on professionally installed electronic security products and services last year, according to a study by Security Sales & Integration magazine.

So what does an executive get for a million dollars? Google and Oracle wouldn’t comment. But Alexander and other security experts say that most of money usually goes to “gates, guns and guards.”

The biggest cost is labor. Typically a top executive will contract with a company to provide guards at their home, both for screening visitors at a gatehouse and stationed around the perimeter of their property. Each guard costs about $60 an hour. Execs may also hire round-the-clock bodyguards for their family, similar to those used by celebrities. Personal bodyguards charge an annual fee that starts at $75,000.

The perceived risks increase when execs travel outside the U.S., and so do the fees. Prominent execs hire additional manpower when they travel to high-crime countries. The guards travel with the executive, find secure drivers and investigate the corporate jet for potential security breaches like unidentified luggage. They scout out hotels, meeting rooms and restaurants in advance

“If we need to get the client out of town or a venue, we know what to do and where to go,” says Jeff Bilyeu, president of the Bilyeu Group. The Virginia-based company provides private security guards for executives, diplomats and heads of state, at a steep cost: Each guard can bill up to $1,500 a day plus travel expenses.

Home security hardware is also a big part of the cost. “They all have heavily guarded facilities,” says Frank Burke, president of Monrovia, Calif.-based home security company USA Alarm Systems. Top-of-the-line alarm systems can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more depending on the size of the estate. As you’d expect, a Manhattan loft costs less to secure then Ellison’s 23-acre Woodside, Calif., estate. The most expensive systems feature high-resolution outdoor cameras, reinforced windows, motion detectors and facial recognition scanners.

Safe rooms are a popular home security feature. The rooms are designed like upgraded 1950s bomb shelters, with air filters to screen out biological agents, dedicated phone lines, bathrooms and closed-circuit TV systems. Depending on the features, safe rooms can cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “The cost of the safe room is limited only by the threat you are intending to protect [against],” says Alexander.

The third major security cost is for transportation. Many companies require their top executives to use corporate jets or cars for security and time management purposes. Bank of New York spent $959,000 on chauffeur services for its top executives, according to its March 14 proxy. That number may not include the cost of securing the cars and planes, says Alexander. A guard has to “advance” the trip, screening everyone who services the vehicles, from the cabin cleaning crew to the caterers. The cars are often kept in a separate, secure garage guarded by motion detectors and cameras to prevent tampering. “You can’t leave the car or plane alone,” says Alexander.

Some execs would love to be left alone. But their companies claim they can’t afford to let them: High-end security, with all its guards and cameras, is a balance between protection and privacy.

Joe LaSorsa doesn’t need references to convince potential clients that he can protect them. His I-hide-my-eyes-behind-sunglasses-and-I-probably-take-no-prisoners gaze is likely enough. But then there are his references.

Former Presidents Reagan, Ford and the Bush’s, for example, whom LaSorsa protected during his 20-year career with the U.S. Secret Service, three of them on the elite Presidential Detail. If LaSorsa, could protect the likes of them, he reasoned, then the less prominent but more wealthy clientele he hoped to cultivate would believe he could protect them, too, and buy what he wanted to sell – safe rooms, fortress-like refuges supplied with food, water, electricity and communications that can cost upward of $100,000, into which residents of a home under attack by robbers, kidnappers or other bad guys can retreat while summoning help.

The former Secret Service agent, who has 37 years in the security industry altogether, quickly regrouped, took out a home equity loan and in May 2002 opened J.A. LaSorsa & Associates in an office around the back of a two-story professional building on a nondescript stretch of Federal Highway in Pompano Beach, Fl.

He has now moved his main offices to the Gold Coast of the ‘First In Flight” State of North Carolina.

“I believe North Carolina and some areas such as Raleigh, Charlotte, New Bern, Havelock, Moorehead City, Beaufort, Cape Carteret, Swansboro, Jacksonville, Greenville, Fayetteville, etc. have a tremendous market of those individuals and companies who have a need for a high-end security consultant,” said LaSorsa, who cuts an imposing figure at 5 feet, 11 inches and 210 pounds.

A top security consultant agreed.

“If he has knowledge that sets him aside from other people and he can develop a good following of individuals who are in need of that kind of protection, I think he will be very successful,” said former Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro, now head of Fort Lauderdale-based Navarro Security.
“The product he’s selling is himself. If he can market himself, it will be a good thing for him,” Navarro said, remarking that a security company founded two decades ago in Virginia by former presidential guard Chuck Vance sold last year for a reported $67 million.

In 1998, two years after he retired from the Secret Service, he opened a security consultancy in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he then lived with his wife and three sons. But there wasn’t a lot of demand for what he had to offer, even in a place where well-heeled socialites descend for the summer horse racing and concert season.

The family relocated to South Florida the following year. After stints directing security at two local corporations, he decided to try again. This, despite the fact that the region is already home to about than 900 private investigation agencies and 3,600 licensed private investigators, according to state records.

After nearly two years, things are going pretty well, LaSorsa said, and getting better. Initially, with some $60,000 invested, he was netting between $4,000 and $5,000 monthly from fees ranging between $75 and $150 an hour plus expenses. That covered the nut and has allowed him to start drawing a salary.
More recently things have gone even better. He now commands rates for services ranging from $125 to $300 per hour.

Still, not everything has worked out as planned.

Demand for safe rooms was low despite heightened security concerns in the aftermath of Sept. 11. LaSorsa believes that’s in part because nothing’s happened in other areas to make those at risk believe they need security and in part because the faltering economy makes even people with money reluctant to spend what they have, especially given that 24/7 security on just one person can cost upwards of $1 million annually.

“The 9-11 attack placed a lot of focus on home and personal security. But not a lot of people building rooms,” he said, seated at a desk surrounded by memorabilia from presidential trips – the 1985 Summit of Industrialized Nations in Geneva, the London Economic Conference in 1991 and the bus tour Bill Clinton took after snagging the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. “Many people with high net worth are being very prudent. I think it’s a mistake, because they’re still very wealthy. They are public figures in one way or another and need to be concerned about their security and their family’s security.”

But with flexibility born of long training to deal with the unexpected, LaSorsa adjusted his business plan mid-course. Safe room design and construction remain among LaSorsa’s services, but he’s added a menu of other offerings, including security expert witness services, security consulting – re: security and vulnerability assessments; residential, yacht and business security systems; bodyguard protection at home and while traveling; confidential investigations; school and workplace violence awareness training and intervention services; and executive protection training seminars.

LaSorsa’s clients appear to be satisfied.

Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney Gary hired LaSorsa to analyze security at the crime site.
“I was impressed by his pedigree, specifically that he was on the personal security detail for President Reagan,” said Lazarus, adding that LaSorsa was able to find witnesses other investigators couldn’t and that he has used the former agent regularly. “He’s an expert witness who can testify as to the foreseeability of a crime at a particular location.”

LaSorsa said that other clients – he keeps their names confidential for obvious reasons – have retained him to develop corporate security plans, guard executive offices after potentially disruptive personnel moves, investigate potentially bogus workers’ compensation claims, find embezzlers and convince them to return the money they stole and even to design the occasional safe room – three in South Florida and one in upstate New York.

And he’s promoting a solar-powered wireless perimeter security system that can be quickly installed to protect the perimeter of an estate, aircraft or a docked yacht.

Promoting yacht security, of course, means attracting the kind of clients who own yachts and it’s to them that LaSorsa aims his marketing. He’s taken ads in magazines that cover life’s finer things for those who can afford them, including the DuPont Registry, Robb Report and Ocean Drive . He’s even designed some security rooms, four modest installations in South Florida, North Carolina and one high-end under construction in upstate New York .

But LaSorsa is only beginning to capture that elusive high-end clientele he mapped his business plan to pursue. He’s off this week to conduct three executive protection seminars in Australia that developed after a Melbourne man attended one of LaSorsa’s seminars here.

He’ll then spend a week at an undisclosed destination providing security for a vacationing international business consultant from Palm Beach County and his family.

“I’m not doing too much close-in security,” LaSorsa said. “I’m beginning to think that many people still think that they’re not vulnerable.” LaSorsa is convinced that’s flat-out wrong.

“The wealthier you are the more of a target you are,” he said, predicting that world crackdowns on terrorist finances may spark the kind of kidnappings-for-ransom South American rebel groups use to fund their activities. “It’s not only going to be international terrorism coming to the shores of the U.S. I see the foreign kidnapping plague becoming a U.S. plague.”

Joe LaSorsa can be reached at www.lasorsa.com