Hong Kong holds the world record for the largest clutch of millionaires per square mile - that's more than New York, Hollywood or Tokyo. Not even the Oligarchs in Russia have as much currency floating around. This makes some heads of companies, bankers, and especially billionaires, prime targets for unscrupulous minds. It's also a capital city for frequent celebrity drop-ins, which makes the folks at Signal 8 Security the most wanted in the business. P.Ramakrishnan catches them off duty. All photos by William Furniss.
It was the look of inebriated frenzy in their eyes that was the first warning signal. As Mischa Barton, the teen-something breakout star of the smash hit television series The OC strutted into a club in Hong Kong just after midnight, clad in her Dior finery, even certain virtually comatose socialites were clamoring to get a picture with the star. Two guys in particular were a little too determined to get a snap with the Hollywood princess but when Kim-Maree Penn, Co-Founder and partner of Signal 8 security saw that they were starting to bother her client, the one she was hired to protect and preserve, she first had a subtle word with them.
"I simply suggested that they calm down. We don't do confrontation and physical altercations are, believe it or not, quite rare," she says, analysing the situation."We didn't want to embarrass him or the client, and we're not only safeguarding their lives, but also their image. Now I knew the boys weren't serious security threat to Mischa, but she was getting irritated. When they tried to overstep the line for the third time, well, they were taken care of."
One imagines two burly guys taking them round the back to deal with the offending individuals, but no such Soprano style undertaking ensued. "They were taken firmly by the arm, escorted out of the private room, and blocked from entering the party," clarifies Penn.
No fist-cuffs, no bloodshed and more importantly, no ugly scene in the tabloids the following day. It's all tied up neatly in a bow when the team of Signal 8 Security cover an event.
As Hong Kong's premier security company celebrates its 15th Anniversary this year, we sat with Penn and her business partner and professional bodyguard Bruce McLaren after a dozen celebrities had landed and departed Hong Kong in as many months, many of whom were under the protection of this powerful team.
For those who don't read text online and just look at the pretty pictures, the official website for Signal 8 Security looks like a celebrity fan site, as images of Sting, J.Lo, Norah Jones, Mariah Carey, Cindy Crawford and a host of other Hollywood A-listers appear in moving gifs. But it isn't a pictorial celebrating those who frequent the pages of People magazine, it's a showcase for the high level of security and bodyguard-ing services provided by the excellent team of professional, trained personnel who put the safety of their A-list clients above their own.
Before you read further, I must confess, meeting the top tier bodyguards of the famed and fortuned, is more low-key than I expected. No offence to the striking Kim-Maree Penn or Bruce McLaren. The preconceived notion floating in my mind is one of the camouflaged tactical ninjas with urgent tendencies to scissor into the air when threatened. One imagines slow motion captures of hair swishing mid-air, mid-action as they pounce on their client to take a bullet, only to survive as Whitney Houston sings in the background... You know, like in the movies.
Dressed as normal people and as a matter-of-fact as they are about their sometimes death-defying work, they seem determined to burst every bubble and explode every myth, courtesy of some very cheesy Hollywood movies. As Penn says, "Hollywood is just an illusion of competence."
Think Clint Eastwood in the In The Line of Fire or Whitney Houston's protector/lover Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. Constantly talking to their tiny microphones in their wrists, perpetually clad in Ray-Bans (day or night), in slick black suits, capturing all with their unblinking eyes, the normalcy
of the duo is ruining the romance of taking a hit.
When told, they just roll their eyes and laugh, "There are so many mistakes in The Bodyguard, I don't even know where to begin," says McLaren in his discernible Scottish brogue. "Even in the opening scene, he's using one hand to pin the guy to the ground, and shooting with the other. Why not just kneel on him and use two hands for an accurate shot?"
"We also make it imperative that you don't physically touch the celebrities we work with," says the glamorous Penn in the same vein of disbelief at the inaccuracies of the US$100 million movie. "Costner was feeling up the singer throughout - tsk tsk tsk. You have to keep a professional distance. In a hostile situation, you've got to get them out and let the client know of the urgency, otherwise, you wouldn't touch them, so when you do finally grab an arm, then they know it's serious and will act accordingly."
Sure, but the romance of the film would have perhaps been been killed off, hence the cinematic licence to "feel up" the 'Queen of the night'.
"But even the basic routines were off the mark," voices Mclaren in displeasure. "In high risk situations, they only show two guys - one of whom isn't even qualified to be a bodyguard. Besides, if she's supposed to play the part of a multi-millionaire,
get more bodyguards!"
As protector of the faith, Faith Hill that is, the security people's job isn't just to knock off the paparazzi and take the bullet while running beside Presidential cars. For one, they would never have to guard a President or Royal as someone else already has that job.
"Bill Clinton, like all former Presidents, has the Secret Service with him constantly, so we were just on the perimeter when he was in Hong Kong," says McLaren. "But the Vice President only gets a short period of security after his term, and from then on he has to pay for it himself. So when Al Gore was here (promoting his film An Inconvenient Truth), we did sit outside his room for hours. Nothing major happened. Most of the time Hong Kong is a safe city and life threatening occurrences are, fortunately, rare."
Working with celebrities however, can get out of hand as their lives might not be in danger but there's no trusting the quixotic nature of a crazed fan either. "When we took Arnold Schwarzenegger to Stanley market, he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and smoking a cigar, it took people less than half a second to realise who he was," says McLaren, who walked with the 6'2 unmistakable Governor of California. "It was a narrow street, with lanes everywhere and with only two bodyguards it was very, very difficult to control. There wasn't a threat to his life, but it was basically problematic with overzealous fans. Mind you, he did love the attention."
In near perfect synchronicity, Penn caught the end of McLaren's sentence to say, "There are always unforeseeable occurrences, a lift breaks down when you are in it with an actress, there is a power failure at a venue, or a fight at a nearby table rears up - you may have nothing to do with it, but it spills over and you have to know how to get away from a location fast."
Safeguarding not just the lives of their clients, but also how they are perceived, the two quote the recent mishaps when Angelina Jolie went to shoot a film in India. Her bodyguards got into a scuffle with the parents of a school as shooting for A Mighty Heart got disrupted. The actress visited Anjuman-E-Isslam school, at the same time that the students were about to leave. Chaos ensued among the paparazzi, the parents and the children. The scuffle between Jolie's own bodyguard and a reporter in Pune was caught on tape for all to see.
"When we do a bodyguard course the last thing we teach is Close Quarter Battle (CQB) because if you do everything else right, you shouldn't get to the stage where you're punching and kicking and rolling around the floor biting somebody," says McLaren. "We avoid physical sparring, and confrontation is always, always the last resort," nods Penn.
As the event made CNN, it cast the couple in poor light in the host country. In a typical act of celebrity spin, 'Brangelina' had to appear on camera to apologise to the people as they were shown travelling around the city in an Indian auto-rickshas, mingling with locals. "Again, a huge mistake. The open sides of the vehicle just laid the couple and their son open to the elements," says Penn. "I understood it from a PR point of view, but it wasn't safe."
The two professionals also cast doubt on the guards hired to protect and serve the golden couple. "Many people that hire bodyguards don't bother checking to see if they are qualified to do what they're doing. The job is all about preparation and planning. If a couple hires a nanny for their kids, they would do a background check. They want to make sure the woman isn't a deranged, psycho killer. Similarly, you should vet your bodyguards too because they are privileged to incredibly sensitive and confidential information," says McLaren.
Penn speaks about the importance of having principles too, "Bodyguarding is a skill and you have to have ethics. There are so many things that we see, that we overhear when we're travelling in a limousine with a celebrity and there are people who will sell it to the National Enquirer. People can make millions for a scandalous story."
"We've seen clients in... well, how can I put this?" pauses Penn, looking at her partner with a furrowed brow. McLaren zips in with a quick retort, "Compromising situations?"
"Yes, that's it," she says as we all laugh. "We've caught clients in compromising situations and all it would take is a quick snap of a camera phone to pocket millions. But, we've got ethics in place. Without integrity, this type of business can go under in a flash."
A reputation is priceless as the company is world-renowned and the team is well respected within the celebrity circuit, all the staff of Signal 8 Security have maintained decorum even during the most tempting times. "We have a strong screening process," emphasizes McLaren, who like Penn, is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security, a qualified instructor of Defense and Restraint Tactics (D.A.R.T) and a firearms instructor with (I.L.E.T.A).
"We do a personality profile on staff. Are they trigger happy? Are they there to make friends with the stars and then harass them? Are they in it to be famous themselves? You have to be very careful."
In his role as a protector, McLaren has also been involved in grave situations such as foiling kidnapping and preventing other heinous crimes,
"There was a kidnapping/ransom situation that was about to happen and we were on hold for about six weeks. It was a mainland Chinese kidnapping. We got two days notice to get everything set; we organised cars, routes, logistics. A lot of the time there is concern that although the ransom is paid, the person could be suddenly grabbed again."
Between the dramatic moments, there's a lot of waiting around, working long shifts for things to unfold. But the long gaps do give them time to map out worst-case scenarios.
"We had to organise a system where we would get the kidnapped person away from the situation as soon as the ransom was paid. He would literally be stripped naked in the car, his clothes would be bundled up and shoved in another car, and he'd be driven off in a fresh set of clothes, just in case there was anything on him that was a tracking device. We have routes worked out, and a safe place to take him to."
As three of the world's wealthiest billionaires hopscotch around Hong Kong, the company must be constantly booked by the Li-Ka Shings of the world one presumes. But they're not. "We have worked with a few businessmen. They will have incredible amounts of money but will not pay for trained, professional bodyguards. A lot of people have the misconception that because you're a black belt, you're automatically a good bodyguard. Or they just go for numbers - get five untrained men to just stand around them - what good is that? In Hong Kong, you can get your basic security permit, a 16-hour course that tells your basically how to put your uniform on. Which basically means a 70-year old granny could have one and say she's a bodyguard." says McLaren.
"There's much more to it than being a stereotypical bouncer standing in front of a star. From the threat analysis to risk resolution, there's a procedure to be followed," says Penn.
While she maintains her stance at all times, in a rare twist of scenario, when she was walking down the street in Los Angeles, Drew Barrymore came chasing after her once, screaming out a name. "She's in love with Sydney," she says with a laugh. "No-one recognises me, but Drew and Britney Murphy love my 115-pound dog who gets a lot more attention than I do. But anyway, the whole point of being a bodyguard is to be seen, but not noticed."
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