Being a high-powered executive may not be financially risky, but it’s certainly dangerous. Or at least, that’s a reasonable conclusion based on the millions some companies spend protecting their top brass.

Executive compensation reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the past several months revealed exactly how much companies spend to protect their top executives. According to the filings, some take security seriously, outfitting “C-level” employees with cars, planes and home alarm systems. Others skimp on safety costs, paying nominal amounts for minimal security systems.

Leading the pack is Oracle, which spent $1.8 million protecting Chief Executive Larry Ellison last year–a 40% increase from the year before. And that sum doesn’t even cover all of Ellison’s security costs: The billionaire also spent his own money installing top-of-the-line security systems in his Malibu and Woodside, Calif., estates.

Other technology companies aren’t quite as generous–or as paranoid. Google spent $532,755 protecting Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and $33,196 on founder Larry Page’s transportation, logistics and personal security. And the company spent nothing on co-founder Sergey Brin’s security.

So is Ellison in more danger then Google’s famous founders? Not necessarily, say security experts. Most likely, they argue, neither company is fully disclosing their security spending, but are instead folding some of them into expenses that aren’t listed in SEC filings. “Those executives are most likely not revealing their high-end costs,” says Bruce Alexander, president of executive protection consulting firm All Source Consulting Group. “I would guess that they are under-reporting.”

And Page and Brin may be an exception: More and more frequently, large companies are accepting security expenditures as a necessary cost of doing business. They figure that their top executives are some of the company’s most valuable assets, and they want to treat them accordingly. As Ford Motor explained in its April proxy report, “the benefits of providing these programs outweigh the relatively minor costs associated with them.” Ford spent $1 million last year protecting its top executives and members of the Ford family.

Corporations aren’t the only ones worried about security. Americans spent about $25.9 billion on professionally installed electronic security products and services last year, according to a study by Security Sales & Integration magazine.

So what does an executive get for a million dollars? Google and Oracle wouldn’t comment. But Alexander and other security experts say that most of money usually goes to “gates, guns and guards.”

The biggest cost is labor. Typically a top executive will contract with a company to provide guards at their home, both for screening visitors at a gatehouse and stationed around the perimeter of their property. Each guard costs about $60 an hour. Execs may also hire round-the-clock bodyguards for their family, similar to those used by celebrities. Personal bodyguards charge an annual fee that starts at $75,000.

The perceived risks increase when execs travel outside the U.S., and so do the fees. Prominent execs hire additional manpower when they travel to high-crime countries. The guards travel with the executive, find secure drivers and investigate the corporate jet for potential security breaches like unidentified luggage. They scout out hotels, meeting rooms and restaurants in advance

“If we need to get the client out of town or a venue, we know what to do and where to go,” says Jeff Bilyeu, president of the Bilyeu Group. The Virginia-based company provides private security guards for executives, diplomats and heads of state, at a steep cost: Each guard can bill up to $1,500 a day plus travel expenses.

Home security hardware is also a big part of the cost. “They all have heavily guarded facilities,” says Frank Burke, president of Monrovia, Calif.-based home security company USA Alarm Systems. Top-of-the-line alarm systems can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more depending on the size of the estate. As you’d expect, a Manhattan loft costs less to secure then Ellison’s 23-acre Woodside, Calif., estate. The most expensive systems feature high-resolution outdoor cameras, reinforced windows, motion detectors and facial recognition scanners.

Safe rooms are a popular home security feature. The rooms are designed like upgraded 1950s bomb shelters, with air filters to screen out biological agents, dedicated phone lines, bathrooms and closed-circuit TV systems. Depending on the features, safe rooms can cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “The cost of the safe room is limited only by the threat you are intending to protect [against],” says Alexander.

The third major security cost is for transportation. Many companies require their top executives to use corporate jets or cars for security and time management purposes. Bank of New York spent $959,000 on chauffeur services for its top executives, according to its March 14 proxy. That number may not include the cost of securing the cars and planes, says Alexander. A guard has to “advance” the trip, screening everyone who services the vehicles, from the cabin cleaning crew to the caterers. The cars are often kept in a separate, secure garage guarded by motion detectors and cameras to prevent tampering. “You can’t leave the car or plane alone,” says Alexander.

Some execs would love to be left alone. But their companies claim they can’t afford to let them: High-end security, with all its guards and cameras, is a balance between protection and privacy.

Former Presidents Reagan, Ford and the Bush’s, for example, whom LaSorsa protected during his 20-year career with the U.S. Secret Service, three of them on the elite Presidential Detail. If LaSorsa, could protect the likes of them, he reasoned, then the less prominent but more wealthy clientele he hoped to cultivate would believe he could protect them, too, and buy what he wanted to sell – safe rooms, fortress-like refuges supplied with food, water, electricity and communications that can cost upward of $100,000, into which residents of a home under attack by robbers, kidnappers or other bad guys can retreat while summoning help.

The former Secret Service agent, who has 37 years in the security industry altogether, quickly regrouped, took out a home equity loan and in May 2002 opened J.A. LaSorsa & Associates in an office around the back of a two-story professional building on a nondescript stretch of Federal Highway in Pompano Beach, Fl.

He has now moved his main offices to the Gold Coast of the ‘First In Flight” State of North Carolina.

“I believe North Carolina and some areas such as Raleigh, Charlotte, New Bern, Havelock, Moorehead City, Beaufort, Cape Carteret, Swansboro, Jacksonville, Greenville, Fayetteville, etc. have a tremendous market of those individuals and companies who have a need for a high-end security consultant,” said LaSorsa, who cuts an imposing figure at 5 feet, 11 inches and 210 pounds.

A top security consultant agreed.

“If he has knowledge that sets him aside from other people and he can develop a good following of individuals who are in need of that kind of protection, I think he will be very successful,” said former Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro, now head of Fort Lauderdale-based Navarro Security.
“The product he’s selling is himself. If he can market himself, it will be a good thing for him,” Navarro said, remarking that a security company founded two decades ago in Virginia by former presidential guard Chuck Vance sold last year for a reported $67 million.

In 1998, two years after he retired from the Secret Service, he opened a security consultancy in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he then lived with his wife and three sons. But there wasn’t a lot of demand for what he had to offer, even in a place where well-heeled socialites descend for the summer horse racing and concert season.

The family relocated to South Florida the following year. After stints directing security at two local corporations, he decided to try again. This, despite the fact that the region is already home to about than 900 private investigation agencies and 3,600 licensed private investigators, according to state records.

After nearly two years, things are going pretty well, LaSorsa said, and getting better. Initially, with some $60,000 invested, he was netting between $4,000 and $5,000 monthly from fees ranging between $75 and $150 an hour plus expenses. That covered the nut and has allowed him to start drawing a salary.
More recently things have gone even better. He now commands rates for services ranging from $125 to $300 per hour.

Still, not everything has worked out as planned.

Demand for safe rooms was low despite heightened security concerns in the aftermath of Sept. 11. LaSorsa believes that’s in part because nothing’s happened in other areas to make those at risk believe they need security and in part because the faltering economy makes even people with money reluctant to spend what they have, especially given that 24/7 security on just one person can cost upwards of $1 million annually.

“The 9-11 attack placed a lot of focus on home and personal security. But not a lot of people building rooms,” he said, seated at a desk surrounded by memorabilia from presidential trips – the 1985 Summit of Industrialized Nations in Geneva, the London Economic Conference in 1991 and the bus tour Bill Clinton took after snagging the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. “Many people with high net worth are being very prudent. I think it’s a mistake, because they’re still very wealthy. They are public figures in one way or another and need to be concerned about their security and their family’s security.”

But with flexibility born of long training to deal with the unexpected, LaSorsa adjusted his business plan mid-course. Safe room design and construction remain among LaSorsa’s services, but he’s added a menu of other offerings, including security expert witness services, security consulting – re: security and vulnerability assessments; residential, yacht and business security systems; bodyguard protection at home and while traveling; confidential investigations; school and workplace violence awareness training and intervention services; and executive protection training seminars.

LaSorsa’s clients appear to be satisfied.

Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney Gary hired LaSorsa to analyze security at the crime site.
“I was impressed by his pedigree, specifically that he was on the personal security detail for President Reagan,” said Lazarus, adding that LaSorsa was able to find witnesses other investigators couldn’t and that he has used the former agent regularly. “He’s an expert witness who can testify as to the foreseeability of a crime at a particular location.”

LaSorsa said that other clients – he keeps their names confidential for obvious reasons – have retained him to develop corporate security plans, guard executive offices after potentially disruptive personnel moves, investigate potentially bogus workers’ compensation claims, find embezzlers and convince them to return the money they stole and even to design the occasional safe room – three in South Florida and one in upstate New York.

And he’s promoting a solar-powered wireless perimeter security system that can be quickly installed to protect the perimeter of an estate, aircraft or a docked yacht.

Promoting yacht security, of course, means attracting the kind of clients who own yachts and it’s to them that LaSorsa aims his marketing. He’s taken ads in magazines that cover life’s finer things for those who can afford them, including the DuPont Registry, Robb Report and Ocean Drive . He’s even designed some security rooms, four modest installations in South Florida, North Carolina and one high-end under construction in upstate New York .

But LaSorsa is only beginning to capture that elusive high-end clientele he mapped his business plan to pursue. He’s off this week to conduct three executive protection seminars in Australia that developed after a Melbourne man attended one of LaSorsa’s seminars here.

He’ll then spend a week at an undisclosed destination providing security for a vacationing international business consultant from Palm Beach County and his family.

“I’m not doing too much close-in security,” LaSorsa said. “I’m beginning to think that many people still think that they’re not vulnerable.” LaSorsa is convinced that’s flat-out wrong.

“The wealthier you are the more of a target you are,” he said, predicting that world crackdowns on terrorist finances may spark the kind of kidnappings-for-ransom South American rebel groups use to fund their activities. “It’s not only going to be international terrorism coming to the shores of the U.S. I see the foreign kidnapping plague becoming a U.S. plague.”

Joe LaSorsa can be reached at www.lasorsa.com

Recent media reports would have you believe that crime has shot out of sight because of the economic woes our country had encountered over the past two years.

“Murder rates increase drastically and home burglaries on the rise” shout some headlines, while others warn you to lock your car because they are disappearing at an ever increasing rate. National statistics, however, appear to suggest otherwise concerning the potential correlation between high crime and bad financial times, but one current statistic is crystal clear. Our youth, especially young black males, are dying at a rate totally disproportionate to society around them, and it’s getting worse on a daily basis.

Murder, Mayhem and the Economy

While headlines and TV talking heads across the country continue to assure us that we are indeed in the middle of a recession, what some suggest is just one benchmark on our way to a full-blown depression, others have linked these doom and gloom financial predictions to a suggested increase in crime across America. In 2008, New York City (NYC) experienced 522 recorded homicides, a dozen more than Chicago experienced in the same year, yet in 1990 the Big Apple suffered through a mind numbing 2,262 murders, over 6 new killings every day, while in 2003 Chicago dealt with 601 murders, ninety more than last year. Nonetheless, researchers have their own studies to suggest that when wages and national unemployment fall, crime rates rise, especially for less-educated men.

In “the windy city,” Chicago, the state’s largest city that is awaiting the appointment of yet another new state governor, this because half of that state’s last eight governors have wound up in prison, property crimes are up 3 percent and robberies up almost 10 percent. These same studies suggest that in every recession since the 1950′s crime rates have gone up, but wait; this wasn’t the case in “the great depression,” so how do these researchers account for that fact? To begin with, they point out the increase in the number of males between 17-25, the age and sex of their “typical offender,” therefore flooding America’s cities with a lot of young men with time on their hands and no work to fill their empty hours, therefore suggesting these same young men are turning to crime as their numbers and their idle hands increase.

Do we need a 21st Century WPA?

Should this all be true, President Obama needs to be a quick study of history when he considers the way President Roosevelt dealt with unemployment in the 1930′s. Many will recall the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a national organization that in the 30′s and 40′s put 8,500,000 out of work people to work on 1,410,000 projects that built highways, roads, and streets, while repairing 124,031 bridges, public buildings, parks and airports. Another lesser known but equally effective New Deal program was the National Youth Administration (NYA), a national employment program that ran from 1935 to 1943 as part of the WPA.

By the late 1930′s, over 330,000 high school and college age youth were employed by the NYA doing various work projects while another 160,000 young men and women were employed in part-time work, to include job training. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a similar 1930′s national organization that moved young men away from their homes to locations where they could work on projects. The CCC, a quasi-military organization that also dealt with the unemployed of that time, would also see hundreds of thousands of young men get jobs during the great depression. It, like the NYA, contributed to the building of our national infrastructure, one now sorely in need of repair all across American, and at that time gave 10′s of thousands a paycheck when both they and their country needed their work the most.

While I like the idea of affording the unemployed the chance to march off together, side by side, to earn a paycheck while learning new job skills and saving our country from falling into massive disrepair, I must first question the willingness of the unemployed to march to such a tune, and the ability of such programs to reduce both the chance of future bread lines and the suggested growing ranks of criminals who could turn to crime as a means of financial survival.

The Criminal Reality of our Recession

A recent report by the US Conference of Mayors appears to support the idea that violence and drug-related crimes do go up during times of national economic recessions, something that many people believe to be “a no brainer.” But while murder spiked in some cities, it was down in others. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for example, saw local murders drop 33% last year, while other cities like Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, and LA all reported fewer murders in 2008 than were reported in 2007. The FBI, as the national repository of crime statistics, reports that violent crime in America fell by 3.5% and property crime dropped by 2.5% last year. This was the same on a national level with car thefts, larcenies, and burglaries; while arsons dropped 5.6% (though with so many businesses and homes falling into foreclosure, I would suspect that the crime of arson for profit, to include insurance fraud, could increase if times do not get any better.)

The toll that this recession is taking can, unfortunately, be measured in more than dollars and cents and points on the Dow. We have, for example, witnessed mass murders in homes across the country related to the country’s ongoing financial challenges, to include the distraught and heavily in debt LA black man who, this past week, shot and killed his wife, their five children and himself after both he and his wife were fired from their jobs. Then there was the case of the former millionaire Indian man from California who, in October 2008, became despondent over his own similar financial challenges and shot his wife, three sons, mother-in-law and himself to death. Race, as we know, is no determinant when someone has reached the end of their rope and can no longer hold on, a situation more and more families across America are facing.

People in Peril

But maybe the crime researchers are wrong concerning the direct connection between crime and the economy, perhaps this relationship cannot be proven, at least for the time being. What is true and beyond dispute, though, is that one segment of our society is seeing an increase in crime, that being the African American community. Former Governor Mitt Romney, in his ill-fated run for President, when asked what he would do to deal with “black on black crime,” was chastised by members of the black community for evoking Bill Cosby’s remarks, ones echoed by other prominent blacks such as National Public Radio and Fox News contributor Juan Williams. These and other black icons have suggested that the lack of individual responsibility within the black community was more responsible for black crime than was “systemic racism.” Many hope that the election of President Obama will stop the use of the numerous used up racial stereotypes by both blacks and whites, and will also put an end to the incidents of outright corporate blackmails in America that are thinly disguised as racially-related boycotts, ones in reality stirred up by members of the community who are more concerned with themselves and their own personal gain than what might be best for the community they suggest they represent.

As was the case with Mitt Romney, somehow whites are not allowed to discuss black crimes as we are, of course, not black. Why 13% of the population is charged with committing a disproportionate percent of the crime in this country is something we are not supposed to talk about, without being called a racist that is. While I am not a racist, I am concerned, truly worried about the youth of today, especially black youth. Since we are looking at sociological studies, let’s consider one recently conducted that indicates that black teenagers are being murdered at an ever-increasing rate. Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 saw a 40% increase in their numbers who were killed last year vs. the year 2000. Almost 1,000 14-17 year-old black males shot someone to death in 2007, up 38% from the year 2000, this while national murder statistics increased only 8% during the same period.

In 2007 there were over 17,000 reported homicides for which slightly over 10,000 people were arrested; half of them black, with almost 10% of these arrestees under the age of 18. For comparison purposes, during 2007, 385 white males in the same 14 to 17 age group shot someone to death.

Who or What is to Blame?

While racism seems to be blamed for almost every social failure, it is obvious that all segments of our society, white, black, brown and otherwise need embrace the words of Bill Cosby, someone who, like many, learned a valuable lesson from the 1987 NYC Tawana Brawley case, one like so many others that proved that all parents of all races need to be responsible for their children. While most adults will agree that teenagers need the help and guidance of their parents, with 50% of marriages ending in divorce, many teens wind up as latch key kids or fall under the care of an overworked and underpaid mother or grandmother. Cosby was dismissed by some for his remarks suggesting that individual responsibility, parental responsibility and education were needed to pull these challenged youth out of trap of poverty and crime, and that failure to realize this was the reason for the crisis in the black community and that such challenges could not all be laid at the feet of racism. For his remarks he was labeled as a rich elitist who had lost touch with his roots, but I’ve already had blacks tell me that President Obama does not represent the black community because he had a white mother and grew up in Hawaii. If anything, our new President may represent the best of all of us, and surely has the interest of all Americans at heart as he struggles with these terrible times of war and financial crisis.

So while some crimes in some locations have increased since we entered the current economic recession, others have not, preventing the easy conclusion that crime must go up in times of recession. We need to find ways to employ the unemployed and put our national work force back to work to build the United States into the great nation it still has the potential to be. With, for example, almost 30% of our nation’s 600,000 bridges rated structurally deficient, it could easily take 12 billion dollars per year for 20-30 years to repair and shore up these overpasses to prevent occurrences like the August 2007, collapse of the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, one that resulted in the death of 13 and injured 145 and closed that main thoroughfare for over a year.

President Obama needs the Wisdom of King Solomon

While our new President clearly recognizes the perilous economic straits that our country is in, he also needs to see and deal with the social and infrastructure challenges we 210 million Americans collectively face. We are facing 800 billion dollars of debt to stimulate our economy. While our underemployed and unemployed may not readily embrace a 21st century version of the WPA and related programs, it appears clear that we will need some type of national employment program to help us pull ourselves up by our collective boot straps and fix our broken infrastructure, this while protecting one very vulnerable group of our fellow countrymen, young black men, from imploding during our ever increasing time of national social and economic challenge.

After all, shouldn’t the American people who need this massive financial stimulus the most be able to earn a salary while improving our country for the sake of our children and grandchildren? This will be our legacy, one way or the other, for future generations to come.

Making in the private sector depends on what you classify as “making it”. You need to decide which skill sets you need to develop.
1) the entrepreneurial skill sets;
or
2) the worker skill sets;

If you are looking to be financially successful, you need to develop the entrepreneurial skill sets. If you wish to pursue a “living”, then pursue # 2.

The skill sets are at different ends of the spectrum. However, you will need #2 to be successful at #1.

Executive Protection Training

Prior military or L/E experience the private sector is NOT the ‘Be ALL’ and ‘End All’ as some think it is.

If you’ve attained quality experience in a prior Law Enforcement or Military career, then the that background and experience becomes somewhat significant. However, keep in mind what those two experiences really provide. They are law enforcement or possibly criminal investigative experiences or aggressive and tactical, strategic offensive ‘killing’ experience. There is no doubt some really good E.P training available in the LE or military world, BUT, not all former LEO’s or military have it. There are too many charlatans out here who claim to be good at what we do, but they’re NOT! So many people in our business, get the necessary state licensing and then, they claim they have the requisite background and experience and then, presto – they are out there doing E.P. and claiming they are the E.P agent extraordinaire.

The agent that impressed me the most since I retired from the Secret Service in 1996, did not have a L/E background. He did have a former military background, but he had no E.P experience. It was all combat experience in the first Gulf War.

He was trained by Pinkerton Investigations and Consulting. He was good at all of the below points and understood them well!

I say all this, because what so many EP operatives do not understand or will not accept or understand, is they need to be Security Consultants’ as well as ‘Agents’ in our field, in order to really understand and know how to deal with various EP and protective situations and how and when to apply countermeasures (both human and electronic). They also need to know what our real limitations are in the private sector and really need to understand there are some situations we should absolutely stay away from, because we do not have the resources in the private sector to adequately fight the ‘real jackal’. And, above all they need to understand how to conduct a ‘Threat Assessment’ (and , I said a ‘Threat Assessment’, not a Security or Risk Assessment; not a ‘Lifestyle Assessment’), I am referring to a Assessment of a real and bona fide or imminent threat against a Protectee, site or a venue – that is current and ongoing). That skill requires the proper training and the investigative skills and that has to be learned. Unfortunately, not too many of the EP operatives working out there understand or know the differences between the ‘Threat Assessment and the Security or Risk Assessment or the ‘Lifestyle Assessment’. They claim they do, but so many of them really do not.

This having been said, “Security Consulting, Investigations and Security/Protection” is our ‘world’. If you are to succeed in this field in any capacity, you need to attain the following skill sets:
1) security consulting (get a good book on the subject, perhaps through ASIS or call me and then, study it);
2) investigations as conducted in the private sector (especially corporate type investigations);
3) the civil and criminal implications and limitations on both of the above in the private sector;
4) executive protection concepts and procedures (get training);
5) suggest you join A.S.I.S. (American Society for Industrial Security) and consider pursuing the CPP certification. Go to their website (http://www.asisonline.org/) and find out what they’re about and what the CPP designation is all about. In my opinion, if you can eventually pass the CPP exam, you will be fairly qualified to become a entry level security consultant.

Before I retired from the Secret Service, I joined a study group and we worked diligently for four months, and then we took the CPP exam. We passed, but, we would not have passed if we had not studied the Asset Protection manuals and other resources, to prepare for this exam, which covered the above first four points and more! Keep in mind, as a USSS agent, I had exposure to protective and physical security issues which most former L/E’s DO NOT – and, I would not have passed this exam w/o studying hard!

You will need to learn about “risk mitigation” and how, everything we do in this field, touches on this ‘concept’! It is critical to learn.

Then, there’s the other side of this field. Running your own business. This is a horse of a different color! Even if you free-lance, you are essentially running a business!

You will probably need to learn the following: small business start up, local licensing requirements, marketing and advertising and up selling from one aspect of the business to the other.

In addition to marketing and advertising, you will need to become proficient at pricing and selling your services; at NOT compromising your rates and to learn allow some prospective customers become someone else’s customer, because you realize they are not customer at your level. This is all assuming you are running a “real” business and not just going through the motions and “trying to survive”. Too many PI’s and security firms have the mentality that they should accept what the client wishes to pay, because ‘something’ is better than ‘nothing’. Wrong!!!! You need to learn to work ‘smarter and not harder’.

Joseph A. LaSorsa, CPP

Joe LaSorsa doesn’t need references to convince potential clients that he can protect them.

His I-hide-my-eyes-behind-sunglasses-and-I-probably-take-no-prisoners gaze is likely enough.

But then there are his references.

Former Presidents Reagan, Ford and the Bush’s, for example, whom LaSorsa protected during his 20-year career with the U.S. Secret Service, three of them on the elite Presidential Detail.

If LaSorsa, 50, could protect the likes of them, he reasoned, then the less prominent but more wealthy clientele he hoped to cultivate would believe he could protect them, too, and buy what he wanted to sell – safe rooms, fortress-like refuges supplied with food, water, electricity and communications that can cost upward of $100,000, into which residents of a home under attack by robbers, kidnappers or other bad guys can retreat while summoning help.

LaSorsa teamed up initially with Donald O’Neill, who operated the Orca Fund, a hedge fund based in Fort Lauderdale, but backed quickly away after becoming suspicious that all might be on the up-and-up. His instincts proved sound when O’Neill was indicted on multiple counts of mail and wire fraud and money laundering.

The former agent, who has 29 years in the security industry altogether, quickly regrouped, took out a home equity loan and in May 2002 opened J.A. LaSorsa & Associates in an office around the back of a two-story professional building on a nondescript stretch of Federal Highway in Pompano Beach.

“I believe South Florida has a tremendous market of those individuals who have a need for a high-end security consultant,” said LaSorsa, who cuts an imposing figure at 5 feet, 11 inches and 210 pounds. “The number of super wealthy snowbirds is incredible.”

A top South Florida security consultant agreed.

“If he has knowledge that sets him aside from other people and he can develop a good following of individuals who are in need of that kind of protection, I think he will be very successful,” said former Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro, now head of Fort Lauderdale-based Navarro Security.

“The product he’s selling is himself. If he can market himself, it will be a good thing for him,” Navarro said, remarking that a security company founded two decades ago in Virginia by former presidential guard Chuck Vance sold last year for a reported $67 million.

It’s not LaSorsa’s first try at going solo.

His first shot came in 1998, two years after he retired from the Secret Service, when he opened a security consultancy in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he then lived with his wife and three sons. But there wasn’t a lot of demand for what he had to offer, even in a place where well-heeled socialites descend for the summer horse racing and concert season.

The family relocated to South Florida the following year. After stints directing security at two local corporations, he decided to try again. This, despite the fact that the region is already home to about than 900 private investigation agencies and 3,600 licensed private investigators, according to state records.

After nearly two years, things are going pretty well, LaSorsa said, and getting better. Last fall, with some $60,000 invested, he was netting between $4,000 and $5,000 monthly from fees ranging between $75 and $150 an hour plus expenses. That covered the nut and has allowed him to start drawing a salary.

More recently things have gone even better. He now projects a 2004 net between $75,000 and $100,000.

Still, not everything has worked out as planned.

Demand for safe rooms was low despite heightened security concerns in the aftermath of Sept. 11. LaSorsa believes that’s in part because nothing’s happened in South Florida to make those at risk believe they need security and in part because the faltering economy makes even people with money reluctant to spend what they have, especially given that 24/7 security on just one person can cost upwards of $1 million annually.

“The 9-11 attack placed a lot of focus on home and personal security. But not a lot of people building rooms,” he said, seated at a desk surrounded by memorabilia from presidential trips – the 1985 Summit of Industrialized Nations in Geneva, the London Economic Conference in 1991 and the bus tour Bill Clinton took after snagging the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. “People with big money are being very judicious. I think it’s a mistake, because they’re still very wealthy. They are public figures in one way or another and need to be concerned about their security and their family’s security.”

But with flexibility born of long training to deal with the unexpected, LaSorsa adjusted his business plan mid-course. Safe room design and construction remain among LaSorsa’s services, but he’s added a menu of other offerings, including vulnerability assessments; residential, yacht and business security systems; bodyguard protection at home and while traveling; confidential investigations; and executive protection training seminars.

LaSorsa’s clients appear to be satisfied.

Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney Gary Lazarus represents a teenage girl raped by a group of men who detailed autos at a Central Florida dealership in a suit charging the dealership and the men’s employer with negligence. He hired LaSorsa to analyze security at the crime site.

“I was impressed by his pedigree, specifically that he was on the personal security detail for President Reagan,” said Lazarus, adding that LaSorsa was able to find witnesses other investigators couldn’t and that he now uses the former agent regularly. “He’s an expert witness who can testify as to the foreseeability of a crime at a particular location.”

LaSorsa said that other clients – he keeps their names confidential for obvious reasons – have retained him to develop corporate security plans, guard executive offices after potentially disruptive personnel moves, investigate potentially bogus workers’ compensation claims, find embezzlers and convince them to return the money they stole and even to design the occasional safe room – three in South Florida and one in upstate New York.

And he’s promoting a solar-powered wireless security system that can be quickly installed to protect the perimeter of an estate or a docked yacht.

Promoting yacht security, of course, means attracting the kind of clients who own yachts and it’s to them that LaSorsa aims his marketing. He’s taken ads in magazines that cover life’s finer things for those who can afford them, including the DuPont Registry, Robb Report and Ocean Drive . And he’s sent direct mail pieces to every attorney in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

He’s even designed some security rooms, four modest installations in South Florida and one high-end under construction in upstate New York .

But LaSorsa is only beginning to capture that elusive high-end clientele he mapped his business plan to pursue.

He’s off this week to conduct three executive protection seminars in Australia that developed after a Melbourne man attended one of LaSorsa’s seminars here.

He’ll then spend a week at an undisclosed destination providing security for a vacationing international business consultant from Palm Beach County and his family.

“I’m not doing too much close-in security,” LaSorsa said. “I’m beginning to think that many people in this area still think that they’re not vulnerable.”

LaSorsa is convinced that’s flat-out wrong.

“The wealthier you are the more of a target you are,” he said, predicting that world crackdowns on terrorist finances may spark the kind of kidnappings-for-ransom South American rebel groups use to fund their activities. “It’s not only going to be international terrorism coming to the shores of the U.S. I see the foreign kidnapping plague becoming a U.S. plague.”

Neil Reisner can be reached at nreisner@floridabiz.com or at (305) 347-6611.

Schools weigh safety efforts
Although crisis tactics are taught, some doubt the possibility of preventing a Colorado-type shooting.

Go to a typical Capital Region high school and you’ll likely see administrators with cell phones in their pockets and crisis management guides on their bookshelves.

Like school officials throughout the nation, educators here have been on edge since last year’s spate of massacres. There have been “armed intruder drills” and workshops on how to spot potential mass killers and avert tragedies. Some schools have secret code words given to teachers in the event of a “lockdown,” when students are to be kept in their classrooms.

“We are all very frightened about guns, and if we hear things, we are pretty much on top of that,” said Kathryn Martin, a social worker with the Capital Region BOCES, who helps offer safety and anti-violence training. But all the drills and caution in the world can’t really prepare people for the kind of tragedy that took place Tuesday in Littleton , Colo. , when two youths tore through Columbine High School on a shooting and bombing spree that left 15 dead, including the killers.

The incident marked the eighth time since October 1997 that U.S. youths had taken up arms against classmates and teachers.

If Tuesday’s killings carried one lesson, local educators say, it’s that schools should never, ever, assume that “it can’t happen here.” “We try to prepare, but there is no way you can really prepare for these tragedies,” Martin said.

“There is no way of getting away from these things. These are social issues that pervade the entire country,” said Blaise Salerno, superintendent of the Guilderland school district.

Moreover, despite the heightened vigilance that has taken hold during the last year, security experts and psychologists alike are wondering if schools are doing all they can to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.

“We’re too complacent, as a society, as a whole,” said Joe La Sorsa, a security consultant and former Secret Service agent in Saratoga County . La Sorsa last winter met with a group of school superintendents in the Glens Falls area to discuss security measures they could take beyond the basics, such as hall monitors and video cameras.

Among his suggestions: Pay close attention to behavior patterns by kids that could signal potential violence, such as killing animals, constant talk of racial hatred or wearing military garb.

The school officials, La Sorsa recalled, seemed concerned, but they explained that taking such measures can spark lawsuits and other administrative problems. Many of the educators complained that their hands were tied by rules and procedures designed to protect the rights of students.

“If they ask too many questions, it’s opening up a Pandora’s box,” La Sorsa said.

The fact is, spotting potential mass killers simply isn’t the top priority at most school districts, said Theodore Feinberg, North Colonie ‘s senior school psychologist, who chairs an emergency assistance team of experts who help people deal with mass tragedies.

Gov. George Pataki has started a school violence task force, and there have been numerous calls from teachers unions and others for tougher laws on school discipline. Mayor Jerry Jennings on Wednesday announced the establishment of an Albany Fund for Safe Schools/Safe Communities, which will initially be used to help Littleton in some way, though Jennings said he hopes it will be an continuing resource to support youth violence prevention programs in schools, community centers and day care centers throughout the Capital Region.

But paying close attention to all of the students, all of the time, in a given school is a tall order. Nor are schools the only place where such problems need to be addressed.

“It’s not just a school problem,” said Dave Ernst, spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association. “It’s a community problem, it’s a family problem and it’s a law enforcement problem.”

“There is no safety zone,” added Feinberg.

Contributions to the Albany Fund for Safe Schools/Safe Communities can be sent to Key Bank at 60 State Street , Albany 12207, or deposited at any Key Bank branch.

Copyright 1999, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y. The information you receive online from Times Union is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material.

L’aggressione a Silvio Berlusconi è avvenuta perché il servizio di sicurezza ha commesso tre errori». Ad analizzare quanto avvenuto in piazza Duomo è Joseph LaSorsa, che era nel servizio segreto del presidente degli Stati Uniti ai tempi dell’attentato a Ronald Reagan ed oggi guida in Florida l’omonima agenzia di consulenza per la sicurezza.

Quali sono i tre errori?
«Il più grave è la carenza di controllo della folla che si trovava nella piazza. Quando un leader è in posti affollati devono esserci attorno a lui spazi e corridoi che consentono agli agenti di tenere a debita distanza le persone. Lì invece la gente era a ridosso del leader, quasi attaccata».

E il secondo?
«L’assenza di un percorso protetto verso l’auto del premier. Quando il presidente degli Stati Uniti si muove il servizio segreto sa che una delle maggiori vulnerabilità è nel momento in cui sale o scende dall’auto. Per proteggerlo si posiziona l’auto in un posto sicuro, come ad esempio dietro un palazzo o, meglio ancora, sotto un tendone per impedire alla gente di vedere dove si trova la macchina. Il presidente sale a bordo della limousine senza che nessuno possa vederlo. Quando si muove è già nell’auto».

Tanto il controllo della folla come la protezione dell’auto non possono comunque impedire che qualcuno lanci un oggetto contro il leader…
«Certo ma il servizio segreto può limitare il tipo di oggetti che possono essere lanciati contro il leader. E qui sta il terzo errore commesso a Milano: non c’erano controlli, perquisizioni o metal detector attraverso cui filtrare le persone che si avvicinavano a Berlusconi. Anche contro George W. Bush venne lanciata una scarpa a Baghdad, ma poiché i giornalisti entrati in quella sala erano passati attraverso i controlli di sicurezza non potevano avere con sé oggetti contundenti, di ferro, marmo o materiali simili».

Insomma, lei sta dicendo che non si può impedire il lancio di oggetti in sé, ma si possono limitare gli oggetti da lanciare.
«Esatto. Non si può togliere ogni oggetto a chi si avvicina al leader. Ma se si tratta di penne, matite, orologi, scarpe, cinte o anche lampade da tavolino i danni sono destinati ad essere limitati. I metal detector servono a questo. Il problema è che in piazza Duomo non c’erano affatto».

Quali dei tre errori è a suo avviso il più grave?
«Non c’è mai un errore più grave degli altri: è la concanetazione di sbagli differenti, la sovrapposizione fra molteplici carenze, che è sempre all’origine di un vulnus grave nel sistema di sicurezza che protegge un leader. Credo che i reponsabili della scorta di Berlusconi passeranno ora un periodo lungo e difficile di riesame delle procedure. Come facemmo noi dopo l’attentato a Reagan del marzo 1981».

U.S. migration may be down overall, but these vibrant metro areas are still attracting newcomers.

By Forbes

Austin, Texas, is No. 2 on the list of cities where Americans are relocating. © Brandon Seidel/Shutterstock

• In pictures: 10 cities where Americans are relocating
• America’s top 25 towns for living well
• America’s most dangerous cities

Unemployment is on the rise, credit is tight and consumers aren’t spending — which means they aren’t picking up and moving much, either. Very few places in America saw significant population growth in 2008.

Despite the overall economic slowdown, some parts of the country keep on moving ahead, attracting more and more newcomers — even if it’s at a slower pace than in more sound economic times. These places still offer a semblance of stability, as well as great weather, cultural life and, in many cases, affordability. Behind the numbers To determine the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, Forbes used 2008 population estimates for metropolitan statistical areas with a population of more than 1 million, released March 19, 2009, by the U.S. Census Bureau. MSAs are geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. Read: America’s downsized cities Forbes then compared the 2008 population estimates to the previous year’s data to see which areas had grown the most, percentagewise.

The cities that made the list share similar qualities: more business opportunities, better weather and more affordable housing. The top three areas according to the data are Raleigh, N.C., ranking first, which jumped 4.29% to nearly 1.9 million; Austin, Texas, which came in second, with a 3.77% increase to almost 1.7 million; and Charlotte, N.C., which moved up 3.36% to 1.7 million.

All these areas’ increases were smaller in 2008 than they were in 2007 (Raleigh increased by 4.7% in 2007, Austin by 4.29% and Charlotte by 4.2%), but a slight slowdown is not necessarily a bad thing, says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, an independent research and policy group based in Washington, D.C. “Part of the story here is the rapid rise in growth in the middle of decade,” he says. “That growth was unnatural.”

The in-migration that happened in the middle of this decade certainly had a lot to do with the housing boom. When that went bust, so did those crazy population balloons. But these particular places are still growing because instead of building an economy that relies heavily on one industry, most of the metro areas on Forbes’ list serve as headquarters for a diverse range of companies.

• Twitter users: Get the latest updates from MSN Real Estate

For example, Austin’s biggest employers include the University of Texas, Advanced Micro Devices and Dell. That wide range might have something to do with the area’s relatively low January 2009 unemployment rate of 6.4%.

This is the opposite of what happened in true housing boom-and-bust towns like Las Vegas. In 2004, Las Vegas — a foreclosure mecca — saw a population increase of 4.6%, followed by 3.66% in 2005, 3.98% in 2006 and 3.22% in 2007. In 2008, that number fell to 2%.

The power of business
When it comes down to it, a buzzing business community is a metro area’s most important characteristic, says Sean C. Safford, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of “Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown: The Transformation of the Rust Belt.” He studies the social economics of U.S. cities and metro areas.

“Perception is driven by the vibrancy of the companies in an area,” he says.

However, that doesn’t mean that these metros won’t suffer from a slowdown in population growth when 2009′s numbers are released next year. Charlotte, for example, reported a 10.5% unemployment rate for January 2009, likely related to the fact that Bank of America is headquartered there. That high unemployment rate almost guarantees stunted growth in 2009.

“We don’t quite yet know what the impact (of the ongoing recession) will be for 2009 populations,” Frey says. “But we do know it’s not going to get any better.”

Indeed, where Americans are relocating today has little to do with where they’ll be moving tomorrow.

Top 5 cities where Americans are relocating

1. Raleigh, N.C.

2. Austin, Texas

3. Charlotte, N.C.

4. Phoenix

5. Dallas

Click here for the full slide show of 10 cities where Americans are relocating.

This article was written by Lauren Sherman for Forbes.

America’s top 5 most dangerous cities

The greater likelihood of suffering a violent crime sets these U.S. cities apart from the rest of the country. Did your town make the list?

By Forbes