Personal Security Principles (2024)

There are five key elements to building an effective personal security plan. These principles are preparation, detection, deterrence, delay, and defense. Do they sound familiar? They should. The world of physical security planning and design conceptualizes layering key elements of security when developing protection measures for facilities or infrastructure.

Personal security can employ the same conceptual principles, with some key differences. First, you are the principal asset. Yes, others for whom you might be responsible also require attention - but within the sphere of personal security, if you abdicate responsibility for your own security plan in favor of concentrating solely on others, you fail. Note that I did not say that you focus on your security to the exclusion of others. If you are required to protect the lives of others, your ability to think ahead, plan, and execute a well-thought-through plan professionally that keeps you alive, as well as your principal, means that you must accept that you are an asset as well as your principal.

A well-designed personal security plan, in fact, can be a good extension to personnel or an executive security plan. Its focus is on your survival and security. To the extent that you can extend a well-thought-through plan as an umbrella of protection to others such as family members and colleagues.