ArkForce Expands its Luxury Retail Protection Services
ArkForce, LLC is the premier private security contractor that pioneered the quick reaction force approach to protecting high-end retail stores during civil unrest and rioting. The firm has just announced a similar novel approach to protecting luxury brand stores following widespread destruction that results in a lack of public services resulting from natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis and fires.
Unique in the private security industry because of their exclusive reliance on elite military and law enforcement special operations officers, ArkForce has established their bona fides by engaging with some of the most prestigious luxury brands in the world.
Founder and Chief Officer RR Ringo shared his thinking on this issue. “After we demonstrated the value of our single mission doctrine, that is the absolute protection of our clients’ properties during the riots, it was a natural development. That is offering the same high level of protection for clients who become vulnerable to looting and arson after the breakdown of social order and law enforcement following natural disasters.”
Ringo’s personal experience with the potential of urban and commercial devastation was defined when he was posted to New Orleans as a Homeland Security Contractor during the Katrina Disaster in September 2005.
“In four months I saw thousands and thousands of cars broken into. Windows smashed and trunks jimmied. Thousands of more storefronts were shattered and the contents emptied. Victims shared their stories of being terrorized by armed gangs. Six weeks after the flood waters receded, military Humvees with armed National Guardsmen were still mobilizing for their nightly forays looking for burglary gangs. By that time the thieves were working the second floors of homes and buildings. The first floors were emptied out by then.”
When asked if ArkForce used a different approach or different tactics for natural disaster asset protection he explained the differences.
“When our teams post up at a client store during a riot, we are aware that many in the street crowd are legitimate protesters who sometimes find themselves seduced by the collective frenzy of the riot. Sigmund Freud addressed this phenomenon in his book, ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of Ego’.
So, our officer teams must quickly differentiate between boisterous and emotionally charged protesters who are non-threatening and those, possibly armed, criminal gangs intent on theft and property destruction who are potentially life threatening. We have learned that organized theft gangs are conspiring with some radical elements of protest gangs who foster rioting to cover the planned criminal activities. We drill constantly to hone our techniques for deterring either type individual and preventing damage to our clients’ storefronts and premises. I like to say we prevent people from becoming felons.”
Ringo continued, “In the aftermath of a natural disaster the situation is very different. With city streets empty of law enforcement, electricity, light, possibly water and the general public, our officers are sometimes the only authority figures for many blocks. Our posts become outposts. We learned in Katrina that armed gangs very quickly organize and mobilize to take advantage of the collapse of social order after the police presence ceases to exist. And they go where the valuable goods are because they can take whatever they want. It becomes survival of the armed.
In this scenario our officer teams are prepared to demonstrate a show of force designed to deter the most determined armed criminal gangs from carrying out their plans to loot our shops and places of business. We present an unassailable force that causes even the toughest criminal to rethink their objective. We gear up for the occasion. But more than that, it’s our attitude. We are the sheepdogs bearing our fangs to the wolf. We put fear into the predator.”