Threat assessment is a crucial skill for any type of investigative professional, but is particularly important for certain types of niche contractors including bodyguards, bounty hunters and private security officers. Accurate assessment of any threatening scenario will always help a professional investigator to choose their actions and prevent them from facing any undue risk to their assignment or personal safety. Of all the private investigator skills, this one is one of the most vital and also one of the hardest to acquire.
This guide helps professional detectives to recognize the value of properly assessing security threats.
Threat Assessment Explained
Threats are defined as obstacles to an investigator’s assignment. In a surveillance case, threats can include being discovered or identified, which can ruin the entire investigation. However, in a more dangerous case assignment, such as those faced by private security guards, a threat may constitute danger to their own, or public, safety. To bodyguards, threats are defined as anything which places their client’s safety or security at risk.
For paramilitary contractors, threats typically surround them and may involve day to day life or death scenarios for the operative and those around them, as well as for those who have been contracted to be protected.
Acquiring Threat Recognition Skills
Learning to properly assess threats is an inherent part of police and military training, which is why these former occupations are so useful for professional investigators and related career paths. Assessing threats accurately takes real world experience and can not be taught effectively in a classroom setting. Role playing exercise will certainly help to develop the fundamentals of assessment, but it takes years of actual on the job experience to really become an expert.
Unfortunately, being that some niche investigative professions have no room for error, only operatives with high levels of competency will qualify for certain types of work, based of past experience in similar settings and situations.
Threat Recognition Factsheet
Assessment is crucial to dangerous and mundane assignments alike. A learned investigator will realize that there are always going to be factors at play which can compromise the successful execution of their mission, causing minor mishaps or catastrophic failure.
The ability to recognize potential problem before they happen is what separates an investigative professional from the rest of the pack of wanna-bes. Remember this lesson as you work towards enhancing your own skills as a professional investigator.