How to recognise professional close protection.
The title is not protected. Your security is, if you choose correctly. Seven verifiable marks before you place your safety in a stranger's hands.
Anyone may use the title.
Bodyguard, close protection officer, security expert: in Austria, anyone may print these words on a business card. What nobody may print is a trade licence he does not hold and a certification he never passed. That is where serious selection begins: not with appearances, but with credentials.
Seven marks, one standard.
- Trade licence: security industry licence under Section 94 No. 62 of the Austrian Trade Act, verifiable in the public GISA register
- Certified training: ISO 17024 certification as a Close Protection Officer (CPO), examined by an independent commission
- Assessment before price: first the analysis of your situation, then the conversation about cost
- A written concept: scope, team and calculation on paper before anything begins
- Confidentiality: whoever names client names to you will also name yours
- Insurance and structure: liability cover, a chain of substitution and a reachable contact rather than a lone operator
- Composure: competence shows in planning and bearing, not in posturing
When to end the conversation.
- A price over the phone, without a single question about your situation
- References with impressive names, served unasked
- Photographs in combat gear, equipment as a sales argument
- Cash without a contract, service without a concept
- Time pressure as a method: whoever farms your fear is not after your security
What prospective clients ask us.
Is “close protection officer” a protected title in Austria?
No. Anyone may use the title. What is protected is the activity: guarding and close protection require a trade licence for the security industry (Section 94 No. 62 of the Austrian Trade Act), which the authority grants only after examining reliability and competence, and which can be verified in the public GISA register.
What training should a close protection officer hold?
The benchmark is certification to ISO 17024 as a Close Protection Officer (CPO): a personal certification awarded by an independent commission after examination across multiple disciplines, from situation analysis and first aid to escort formation. Certificates a provider issues to itself are no substitute.
What is a threat assessment and why does it matter?
The assessment is the structured analysis of your situation: threat level, environment, occasions, routines. It decides which protection is appropriate, and it is the basis of every serious calculation. A provider who quotes without an assessment is guessing.
Why do professional providers name no reference clients?
Because confidentiality is the core of the service. Whoever shows you whom he protects makes protected persons visible and negotiable. In close protection, the absence of big names is not a lack of experience; it is the proof of it.
How a mandate with us unfolds: see The Protocol. What close protection costs and why there is no price list: see Cost & Process.
Trust is examined before it is given.
Test us. Question by question.
Confidential. Personal. Without obligation.