Dana Priest of the Washington Post recently reported that bodyguards have become common even inside the Pentagon, which is itself ringed by guards. “‘You can’t find a four-star general without a security detail,’” she quoted a three-star general as saying. The three-star general explained, ‘If he has one, then I have to have one. It’s become a status symbol.’”
This supports … [my] contention that nearly all bodyguards supplied to federal, state and even local officials at taxpayer expense are not present to provide safety — they are present to make the official seem more important.
…violent crime is in a generation-long cycle of decline. The bodyguards for public officials are strictly to make them seem important, plus allow them to double-park, cut in line, speed in traffic and so on.
This strikes me as a very effective status signal. If you see someone surrounded by a security detail, you naturally think that they must be important. I’d love to see a study that examined whether having a security detail really increases safety.
Security details may have other primary functions. For example they may serve to make the protected person more difficult to approach. Suppose there were several people who wanted to talk to the protected person, having a security detail shoo them away seems much more effective than you yourself simply trying to avoid them or shoo them away.
Having a team of experts who are willing to die while trying to protect you who are trained in combat and in recognizing many dangers before they gets too close seems like it could be very effective in deterring assassination attempts. Imagine that you want to try and kill someone. Now suppose they have a security detail. This certainly complicates things for you!! You can’t simply wait until the person walks into the open and snipe them, the security detail will have spotted these potential locations in advance if they are sufficiently skilled, or at least you think they will. Sneaking into the persons house at night will likely be much more difficult with armed, trained gunmen protecting the individual.