A bodyguard is a person who protects someone from personal assault, kidnapping, assassination and acquiring confidential information. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, most bodyguards are former or current police officers, or sometimes ex-military.

Bodyguards are typically armed and have expertise in unarmed combat, tactical driving, and first aid. However, the most important skill for a bodyguard is the ability to assess a situation and decide how best to respond to minimize danger to his principal. Most important public figures are protected by several bodyguards who work together as a unit, using several vehicles and sometimes decoy vehicles to protect their client. Less important protectees are accompanied by a single bodyguard, who may double as a driver.

In multi-agent units (like those protecting the heads of states), one or more bodyguards specialize on particular tasks, such as intelligence, communication/communications protection and analysis.

One well-known public agency that provides bodyguard services is the United States Secret Service which safeguards the lives of the President, his family, and other executive officials.

The loudest international scandal involving a bodyguard erupted in 2000 in Ukraine, when local president Leonid Kuchma was publicly blamed in commiting numerous crimes by an agent assigned to provide communications protection at his office (See also SBU, Georgiy Gongadze, Cassette Scandal). In particular, those allegations included conspiracy for murder and illegal weapon transfer to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

For some police dogs that are considered valuable enough for criminals to attempt to kill, they are assigned a large breed companion dog that serves its bodyguard.

From the free encyclopedia Wikipedia bodyguard

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