According to Finnish security experts, the Slovakian prime minister’s security guards made mistakes in connection with yesterday’s assassination attempt. On the other hand, they could save Prime Minister Robert Fico’s life.
18:11•Updated 18:46
We watched the video of the Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Ficon about yesterday’s assassination attempt with security professionals. We found two things that Fico’s security guards could have done better.
The security guards should have positioned themselves between the riot fence and the prime minister
The security guard was a step too far behind and was unable to protect the prime minister.
Prime Minister Fico apparently left to greet the citizens waiting behind the light riot fence on the spur of the moment. teaching security in the Länsi-Uusimaa educational community association Jari Stoltin However, even in unexpected situations, the Security team must prepare and react in the right way.
– In this situation, the security guards should have stepped on the fence a little ahead of the person being protected and positioned themselves so that their eyes are facing the audience and the shoulder of both security guards towards the Prime Minister is slightly forward, Stolt estimated.
In this way, Prime Minister Fico would have washed people’s hands between the security guards and they would have had the opportunity to protect the Prime Minister more quickly in the event of a dangerous situation.
– Now the security guard on the right was a step behind the prime minister and this opened up the direction of attack for the perpetrator of the attempted murder, security trainer Jari Stolt says.
The security guards should have immediately evacuated the prime minister from the situation
All the security men went towards the attacker, even though some should have stayed with the Prime Minister.
The front security guards and the security guard in the audience reacted to the lightning-fast situation correctly, trying to push the perpetrator of the attempted murder and his weapon to the ground. When the Prime Minister, who had been hit, fell to the ground behind a park bench, the security guards who were next to him also went towards the attacker.
– There are two essential tasks in that situation, neutralizing the attacker and evacuating the protected person from the situation as quickly as possible. The latter was not realized in the best possible way, Jari Stolt estimates.
Security guards have less than two seconds to react to a potential threat
Personal protection of politicians and stars is difficult in safe states where violence is a rare exception.
Jari Stolt and another hero of the security industry Totti Karpela remind that the work of security guards in protecting politicians or other celebrities is extremely demanding. It is the most demanding of all in safe countries like Slovakia or Finland.
– It is much easier to plan to secure a person somewhere in Bogota or Mogadishu, where danger factors are constantly present and operations must be planned on that basis, Totti Karpela compares.
People to be protected in dangerous environments are kept away from crowds, for example. Instead, we have politicians everywhere among the people, especially at a time like this, when the European elections are coming up.
That’s why the security guards have to be close by and ready to act very quickly.
– The time to react is two seconds, if even that, Totti Karpela says.
Jari Stolt and Totti Karpela remind us that it is unreasonable to criticize security guards after analyzing the video.
In the attempt to assassinate the president of Slovakia, the shooter raised his gun in sight and fired with it in less than a second. The video of the situation takes a few seconds.
Most of the ordinary citizens who were there did not even have time to realize what was happening in that time.
The security guards responded according to their training and prevented the shooter from continuing his actions.
– You can say that the protection failed when the prime minister was shot – but also that the security guards saved the prime minister’s life, Jari Stolt reminds.