Private Security for High Net Worth Family: Police Liaison

Posted On:Oct 18, 2026
Posted By:Michael Braun

Private security for high net worth family and the police

Private security for high net worth family members works well when it is built to work alongside the police, not instead of them. Three cases in the news over the past few weeks show what that partnership can achieve, how long it can take, and what a family can do to make the difference between a case that is solved and one that stays open.

On the evening of October 4, 2026, South African police raided a property in Randfontein, west of Johannesburg, and freed a Chinese businessman who had been held for 36 days. According to a report by Shine, the Shanghai Daily news service, published October 9, citing Tide News, he had been abducted on August 30 while driving to his shop in Gauteng, after another car lightly struck his and two masked men with assault rifles forced him into their vehicle. The kidnappers first demanded $10 million. His family sought help 17 days into the ordeal through a community association, whose head contacted a Gauteng police kidnapping task force and helped coordinate communication between the family and investigators. Police arrested an alleged ringleader, used that lead to find the house and rescued him. The report says no ransom was paid.

On October 1, the BBC reported on a home invasion in Solihull, in the West Midlands, that had happened the previous December. Three masked men forced their way into a couple’s home, beat the husband with hammers for 45 minutes, held his heavily pregnant wife down on the sofa and threatened to kill her and the baby unless he transferred his cryptocurrency savings. The attack was captured on home security footage. Ten months later, police had yet to identify the attackers, and the charity Crimestoppers was offering a £10,000 reward for information.

And on October 15, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested a Boca Raton man accused of leaving voicemails threatening to kill State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman. Boca Daily News reported that he was charged with intimidation and with a written or electronic threat to kill or do bodily harm, and was being held without bond on that charge. The representative publicly thanked FDLE and the State Attorney’s Office for their swift action.

This article supports the section on working with law enforcement in our 2026 guide to high net worth security. In the guide I make the case that private security and the police play different roles. Here I want to explain how a family and its security team can prepare for the day they need the police, what to bring them, how to preserve the evidence that solves cases, and how private protection keeps the family safe while a case is open.

Private security officer briefs two deputies beside a patrol car at the lit gate of a hillside estate at dusk

Key takeaways

Police solve cases; private security protects the family and helps police do their job. A good program is designed around both roles.
In Gauteng, the family sought police help 17 days after the abduction. Deciding in advance who calls whom, and when, saves time that may matter.
In Solihull, home security footage captured the attack, but the attackers had still not been identified ten months later. Evidence only helps if it is good enough and reaches investigators quickly.
In Boca Raton, threatening voicemails led to an arrest. Recorded, preserved threats are among the strongest evidence a family can hand to investigators.
Build the relationship with your local station before you need it. Know who to call, what they need and how your security team will work with officers on scene.
While a case is open, the family is often highly exposed. Private protection should be adjusted to the stage of the investigation.
One person should be the family’s point of contact with law enforcement, keeping a single, organized record of everything.

Three cases where police work shaped the outcome

Gauteng: 36 days, a task force and a raid

The Shine account gives a detailed picture of the abduction and the rescue. The businessman, from Zhejiang province, was driving to his shop on the morning of August 30. At an intersection, another vehicle lightly struck his car. When he got out to look at the damage, two masked men with assault rifles came out of the other vehicle and forced him inside. He says he was blindfolded, moved between vehicles and held in a small room for more than a month, sometimes given only one meal a day, beaten, and repeatedly told his family had to pay. The initial demand was $10 million within 48 hours. By the time he was rescued, the kidnappers were still demanding $2 million within five days.

On September 17, 17 days after the abduction, his family sought help from Shi Qinping, the head of the Southern Africa Chinese Fujian Association. Shi contacted a Gauteng police kidnapping task force and helped coordinate communication between the family and investigators. Police gradually gathered information on the group, arrested an alleged ringleader and used that lead to locate the property where he was held. On the evening of October 4, officers raided the property in the Randfontein area. He heard officers order the door opened, then two gunshots, and then police entered and freed him. He was taken to hospital. Five suspects were arrested, and five more remained at large at the time of the report. He was expected to stay in South Africa temporarily to help with the investigation.

I do not know why the family waited 17 days, and I am not going to criticize a decision made under that kind of pressure. Families in kidnapping situations are often told not to contact the police, and many are afraid to. But the timeline does make a point: once the family connected with a specialist police unit, through someone who could bridge the gap, the investigation moved.

Solihull: footage, a reward and an open case

The BBC’s account is harrowing. The husband, whom the BBC calls James, said three intruders in balaclavas and gloves pushed open the door and attacked him with hammers. His wife, seven months pregnant, was held down with a pillow over her face. The attackers did not seem to understand how to access the cryptocurrency; they were taking instructions over a live video call from someone else, who searched the man’s phone, found a wallet with substantial funds and threatened to stab his wife and kill the baby. He transferred his savings, and the attackers also took several Rolex watches before leaving in a car driven by a getaway driver.

The attack was captured on home security footage. Police were investigating, but had yet to identify the attackers. Crimestoppers, which is independent of the police and lets people give information anonymously, was offering a £10,000 reward. Its representative, Alan Edwards, told the BBC the attackers were “obviously serious and part of some kind of organised crime gang,” and that the driver had been parked outside without a face covering. The three attackers are thought to be in their late teens or early twenties, and one has a scar under his left eyebrow.

The couple’s baby was born at full term. The husband said he has little hope of getting the funds back but wants the people responsible brought to justice.

Boca Raton: voicemails and an arrest

The Boca Daily News report is short but clear. A police report shared with the paper indicates that the man arrested left voicemails threatening to “slit her throat” if he received another piece of campaign literature in the mail. He was arrested on Thursday, October 15, and booked into the Palm Beach County jail just after 5 p.m., with FDLE listed as the arresting agency. He was held without bond on the intimidation and threat charge, with bond set at $50,000 on a separate charge of using an electronic device to facilitate a felony. Some details were unavailable because the county’s records system was down for maintenance. These are allegations, and he has not been convicted.

Gossett-Seidman said in a statement: “You hear stories from around the country of politicians and their offices being threatened, but you never think it will happen to you. These threats were shocking and vile. I was very worried and feared for my life and safety as well as my staff.”

The voicemails were the evidence. They were recorded, they identified the threat, and they could be traced. That is often how threat cases move from fear to arrest.

What police can do, and what private security is for

Families sometimes come to me after an incident frustrated with the police. The detectives were slow to call back. The patrol officers took a report and left. Nobody seemed to treat the threat as seriously as the family did. I understand that frustration, and sometimes it is justified. But it usually comes from a mismatch between what the family expected and what the police are there to do.

Police have powers no private team has. They can investigate crimes, obtain warrants for phone records and accounts, trace people across jurisdictions, arrest, and bring cases to prosecutors. Specialist units, like the Gauteng kidnapping task force or the state agency that made the Boca Raton arrest, have skills and access that are simply not available privately. Nothing in a private security program should try to replace that.

What police generally cannot do is provide continuous, personal protection for a family that is not a public official with an assigned detail. They respond to calls, investigate and patrol, but they cannot station an officer at your gate for months while a case develops. They also work at the pace of the legal system: evidence has to be gathered properly, suspects identified, cases built. In Solihull, that process was still incomplete ten months after the attack.

That gap is what private security is for. A private team protects the family while the police investigate, makes sure the police have what they need, and makes sure the family does not undermine the case by accident. In California, private security officers and patrol companies are licensed by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, and their role is to protect people and property and report, not to investigate crimes or exercise police powers. The good outcomes I have seen come when both sides understand that division and respect it.

Building the relationship before you need it

Meeting your local police for the first time during an emergency is a poor start. Meeting them just after one, when you are frightened and they are busy, is not much better. Families who have taken the trouble to build a working relationship in calm times get a noticeably better experience when something happens.

That relationship does not mean special treatment, and it should never look like a wealthy family asking for favors. It means that the local station knows the property exists, knows who the family’s security lead is and how to reach them, and has the information officers need to respond safely and quickly. In practice:

Know your station. Which station or substation covers each residence, its non-emergency number, and who the community liaison or senior lead officer is. In Los Angeles that might be an LAPD division or a sheriff’s station, depending on the area; in Malibu, for example, it is the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff’s station.
Introduce the security lead. A short meeting, where appropriate, so that the station has a name and number for the family’s security team.
Prepare a responder information sheet. Address details, gate access, a simple site plan, where officers should meet the security team, and whether there are dogs on the property. Hand it over when appropriate and keep it ready for responding officers.
Use the programs that exist. Many departments offer vacation house checks, community alerts and crime prevention advice. They are worth knowing about.
Know the specialist units. For threat cases, find out who handles them locally and whether there is a threat management unit. For crimes that cross jurisdictions, know when state or federal agencies get involved.
Keep it professional. The relationship is between the family’s security team and the police, conducted on the record and within the rules. No gifts, no favors.

Swatting deserves a mention here, because false emergency calls that send armed officers to a family’s home are a real risk for public figures. A station that already knows the property and the security lead is better placed to verify a suspicious call before officers arrive at the door. Our post on high net worth security services against swatting explains the preparation in detail.

What the private team does when officers arrive

When police arrive at an incident at a protected home, the private security team has a job to do, and it is not to take over. It is to make the officers’ work easier and safer.

I train our teams to do the following:

Identify themselves clearly as private security, in a calm and non-threatening way, keeping hands visible. Responding officers may not know who is who.
Give a short, factual briefing: what happened, when, where the person was last seen, whether anyone is hurt, whether anyone could still be inside, and whether there are weapons involved.
Provide access: open gates, provide the site plan and guide officers where they need to go.
Keep the family safe and out of the way, in a secure room or at a safe distance, while officers do their work.
Hand over evidence: footage, messages and notes, with a record of what was given.
Follow the officers’ instructions. On scene, police are in charge.
Get the report number and the name of the officer or investigator responsible.

This is not complicated, but it is easy to get wrong under stress. A private officer who argues with deputies, gives a confused account or tries to direct the response helps nobody. One who is calm, organized and helpful makes the police response faster and the investigation better.

Reporting a threat: what to bring and how to present it

The way a threat is reported affects how it is handled. A frightened family member calling the front desk of a station with a vague description of “some messages” will get a very different response from a security lead who arrives with an organized file, a clear account and copies of the evidence.

When I help a family report a threat, I prepare:

A short written summary: who was threatened, by whom if known, what was said or done, when, how, and why the family believes it is serious.
The original evidence, preserved: voicemails, messages, letters, emails, screenshots with dates and account details, and any footage.
A timeline of every related contact, including earlier ones that seemed minor at the time.
Information about the person, if known: name, aliases, accounts, address, vehicle, photographs, and any history with the family.
What the family has done so far: changes to security, any contact with the person, any legal steps.
A single point of contact for the investigator, with phone and email, who will be available.

The Boca Raton case is a reminder of why preserved recordings matter. Voicemails are hard to dispute. They capture the words, the voice and the time, and they can be traced to a number. The same is true of written threats and messages, as long as they are kept in their original form. A family that deletes a threatening message in disgust, or replies to it in anger, may have destroyed the thing that would have led to an arrest.

I also tell families to report threats to the right agency. Threats against a public official may involve specialist units or state agencies, as FDLE was in Boca Raton. Threats that cross state lines or involve interstate communication may interest federal authorities. Threats that arrive through a company may involve the company’s own security and legal teams. A security lead who knows the landscape can save weeks of being passed from one desk to another.

Evidence: preserving footage, messages and logs

Evidence is perishable. Camera systems overwrite footage after a set number of days. Phones are replaced. Messages are deleted. Witnesses forget. The Solihull attack was captured on home security footage, and the BBC published images; ten months on, police were still asking the public for help identifying the men. Good evidence does not ensure an arrest, but poor or missing evidence makes one much harder.

Every program should have a simple evidence routine that staff and the security team follow after any incident:

Export and secure the footage immediately. All relevant cameras, for a generous window before and after the incident, copied off the recorder to secure storage. Do not wait for police to ask. Recorders may overwrite in days.
Preserve messages in original form. Keep voicemails, texts, emails and social media messages. Take screenshots that show the sender’s account, date and time, but also keep the originals. Do not reply.
Write down what happened while memories are fresh: each person’s account, separately, with times.
Do not clean up. After a physical incident, leave the scene as it is until police have examined it. Do not touch things the intruders handled.
Log every related event from then on: calls, sightings, messages, cars, deliveries.
Keep a chain of custody. Record who copied what, when and where it is stored, so that the evidence can be relied on later.

Neighbors’ footage matters too. Investigators often canvass for camera footage after an incident, and families can help by asking neighbors, quickly and politely, to preserve anything that might be relevant before it is overwritten.

Home security for high net worth individuals that supports an investigation

Home security for high net worth individuals is usually designed to detect and deter. It should also be designed with evidence in mind, because the systems that catch an incident are often the ones that later help solve it.

From an investigator’s point of view, the useful footage is footage that shows faces, vehicles and license plates clearly, and that records the routes people use to approach and leave. Wide shots of the garden at night are reassuring to look at but rarely identify anyone. When I design camera coverage, I include identification points: cameras positioned and lit to capture faces at the doors and gates people must pass through, and plates on the driveway and at the street.

Several design details make the difference:

Cameras at entry points set at a height and angle that capture faces, not the tops of heads.
Adequate lighting or infrared at those points, so night footage is usable.
A license plate camera covering the approach where the location allows it.
Recorders with enough storage to keep footage for weeks, and with backup to secure off-site storage.
Power backup, so the system keeps recording if the power is cut.
Accurate time settings, so footage can be matched with phone records and other evidence.
A simple, tested way to export footage quickly and securely.

In Solihull, the BBC report noted that the getaway driver was parked outside without a face covering. Whether the family’s cameras captured him clearly, the report does not say. But it is a reminder that the street outside the house is part of the evidence picture.

Kidnapping and extortion: when to call and who to call

Kidnapping and extortion are the situations where the question of police involvement is hardest. Kidnappers often tell families not to contact the police. Families fear that doing so will put their loved one at risk. In the Gauteng case, the family sought help through a community leader, who then brought in the police task force. That bridge mattered.

I do not give a universal rule, because laws, police capabilities and risks vary enormously between countries. In the United States, kidnapping is a matter for local police and, often, the FBI, and families are generally well served by involving them quickly. In some other countries, the decision is more complex. What I insist on is that the decision is made deliberately and with expert advice, not by a frightened family member alone on the phone at 3 a.m.

The plan I put in place for kidnap and extortion covers:

Who the family calls first: the security lead, who then brings in the right people.
Specialist response: if the family has kidnap and ransom insurance, the policy usually provides access to specialist consultants; the security lead should know how to activate it.
Law enforcement: which agency, through whom, and how the family’s communication with investigators will be handled.
Communication with the kidnappers: one designated person, supported by specialists. Nobody else engages.
Confidentiality: no public statements, no social media, a tight circle of people who know.
Protection of the rest of the family, who may also be at risk.

Our post on close protection after a crypto kidnapping covers how these abductions often start, around vehicles and car doors, as in Gauteng.

Personal security for high networth individuals while a case is open

Personal security for high networth individuals often needs to increase after an incident, not decrease. The weeks and months while a case is open are a period of real exposure. The person who made the threat may be out on bail or unidentified. In Solihull, the attackers remained at large. In Gauteng, five suspects were still at large when the report was published. Publicity can draw new attention. And the family is often stressed, distracted and changing routines.

I adjust protection to the stage of the case:

Immediately after an incident: secure the home, consider temporary on-site coverage, review who knows where family members are, and change any routines that are known.
While the suspect is unidentified: increase protective intelligence, watch for repeat approaches, and treat any new contact as potentially linked.
After an arrest: understand the bail conditions and any protective orders, and plan for the person’s possible release.
Around court dates: plan arrivals and departures at the courthouse, because those are predictable public moments.
After the case ends: review whether the risk has truly gone, and step protection down deliberately rather than all at once.

Public appeals, rewards and anonymous information

The Solihull case shows another tool that sits between the family and the police: the public appeal. Ten months after the attack, the couple spoke to the BBC, images from their home security footage were published, and Crimestoppers offered a £10,000 reward. Crimestoppers’ representative explained that people might be afraid to come forward, and that the charity is independent of the police and keeps informants completely anonymous.

Public appeals can work, especially when footage is clear and the people responsible are part of a wider network that others know about. But they carry a cost for the family. The family’s story, and sometimes their identity, becomes public. In the Solihull case the couple chose to remain anonymous, and the BBC used a pseudonym for the husband. Even so, publicity can attract new attention, including from people who want to exploit the family’s fear or from the same criminals.

When a family is considering a public appeal or a reward, I want the decision made with the investigators, the family’s lawyer and the security team together. The questions are practical. Will publicity help the investigation more than it exposes the family? What exactly will be published, and does any of it reveal the home, the family’s identity or their routines? How will the family’s protection change while the appeal is running? Who will handle any approaches that come directly to the family rather than to the police? A well-planned appeal can move a stalled case. A poorly planned one can create a second problem.

Threats against public figures and the people around them

In her statement after the Boca Raton arrest, Rep. Gossett-Seidman said she feared for her life and safety “as well as my staff.” That is a point families and their security teams often miss. Threats aimed at a principal frequently land on the people around them: assistants who answer the phone, staff who open the mail, campaign or office workers who are publicly listed, household employees who are seen at the gate.

Those people deserve to be part of the response. When a threat arrives, I want them told what has happened in a measured way, given clear instructions on what to do if the person contacts them or appears, and protected where the risk justifies it. Staff who answer phones should know to preserve any threatening voicemail rather than delete it, and to pass it on immediately. Staff who handle mail should know what to do with a suspicious letter or package. And staff who are frightened should be able to say so and get support.

For families with a public figure among them, such as an elected official, a business leader whose decisions attract anger or a recognizable entertainer, threat management becomes an ongoing function rather than an occasional event. That function should include a standing relationship with the agencies that handle threats in their jurisdiction, so that a voicemail like the one reported in Boca Raton goes to the right investigator the same day.

Insurance, inventories and the police report

After a burglary or robbery, the police report is also the document an insurer will ask for. In Solihull, the attackers took several Rolex watches as well as the cryptocurrency. Recovering stolen property, proving what was taken and making an insurance claim all depend on records the family kept before anything happened.

I want every family to keep a current, secure inventory of valuables: photographs, serial numbers, appraisals, receipts and distinguishing marks for watches, jewelry, art and collections. That inventory helps police identify property if it turns up at a pawn shop or dealer, which is how many burglary cases are eventually solved. It also makes the insurance claim faster and less painful at a time when the family has enough to deal with.

When a report is made, the security lead should make sure the list of stolen items is complete and accurate, with descriptions and serial numbers where known, and that the report number and investigator’s details are shared with the insurer and the family’s advisors. If more items are discovered missing later, the report should be updated rather than left incomplete.

The inventory itself is sensitive. It is a shopping list for anyone who wants to rob the family. It should be stored securely, outside the house, with access limited to the people who need it.

When the police response disappoints

Sometimes the police response falls short of what a family expected. Officers take a report but do not follow up. A detective is overloaded and slow to respond. A threat the family considers serious is classed as low priority. This happens, and families are right to want more.

The productive response is to make the case easier to act on and to escalate properly, not to work around the police. In practice, that means organizing the evidence so that it is clear and complete, asking for the name of the investigator and a realistic timeline, providing new information as it arrives, and, if the response remains inadequate, escalating politely through the station’s supervisors or to a specialist unit. The family’s lawyer can help where legal steps, such as protective orders, are available independently of a criminal case.

Meanwhile, the private team keeps the family safe. That is the point of having one. The family’s protection should never depend on how quickly an overloaded investigator returns a call.

Looking after the family after an incident

The BBC’s account of the Solihull attack is a reminder that the damage of a violent incident does not end when the attackers leave. The couple described their terror for their unborn baby. The husband suffered injuries to his head, hands and ribs and lost his savings. These are the human facts behind every case file.

A security program has a part to play in recovery, even though it is not therapy. People who have been attacked at home often struggle to feel safe there again. Visible improvements to the home’s security, a clear explanation of what has changed and why, and a security team that is present and calm can help. So can practical support: handling calls from the police, dealing with repairs, keeping the press away and making sure the children’s routines are protected.

Children need particular care. They should be told what happened in terms they can understand, reassured about what is being done to keep them safe and given a simple way to tell an adult if something frightens them. Their schools may need to be informed, discreetly, if there is any risk that the threat could follow them there. Our post on school run security covers that side.

Staff who were present during an incident also need support. They may have been threatened, restrained or simply frightened, and they may feel guilty about what they did or did not do. A blame-free debrief, access to support and a clear explanation of any changes help them return to work with confidence.

Security for UHNW family offices: one point of contact

Security for UHNW family offices includes deciding who speaks to law enforcement on the family’s behalf. In a large family, there may be several people who want to call the detective: the principal, a spouse, the family office head, a lawyer, the security lead. If they all do, investigators receive conflicting information, the family receives partial updates, and nobody has the full picture.

I recommend one point of contact, usually the security lead or a senior person in the family office, supported by the family’s lawyer where legal questions arise. That person:

Keeps the single record of the case, including every report, contact, piece of evidence and update.
Is the investigator’s main contact, and is always reachable.
Passes information to the family in a measured way, so that people are informed without being overwhelmed.
Coordinates any legal steps, such as restraining orders, with the family’s lawyer.
Makes sure security measures are aligned with what investigators know.
Manages confidentiality, so that the case does not leak through the household or online.

In the Gauteng case, a community leader became that bridge between the family and the task force. Families in Los Angeles usually do not have that kind of intermediary, which is why it helps to designate one in advance.

Close protection for UHNW families during an investigation and in court

Close protection for UHNW families takes on a particular shape when a case goes to court. Court dates are public and fixed. Courthouses are crowded public buildings with predictable entrances. The person accused may be there, along with their friends or family. Media may be waiting. For a family that has been threatened or attacked, a court appearance can be a period of real exposure.

When a family member has to attend court, I plan it like any other high-exposure event: an advance of the courthouse, the route and the parking; coordination with court security; a plan for arrival and departure that avoids waiting on the steps; and a team sized to the risk. I also make sure the family member knows what to expect, so that the day is less frightening.

Restraining or protective orders are another point where private security and the legal system meet. An order sets boundaries; it does not enforce them by itself. If a protected person sees the restrained person nearby, the private team’s role is to keep the family safe, document what happened and report it to the police so that the order can be enforced. Our posts on the persistent stalker and private security when a family is threatened cover how those cases develop and how families can respond.

Home security for high net worth individuals while a case is open

Home security for high net worth individuals often needs a temporary step up while a threat case or an investigation is open. That might mean adding on-site coverage during the hours that concern the family, extending camera coverage to the street, changing gate and alarm codes, briefing staff on the person of concern with a photograph where one is available, and agreeing with the local station how a sighting will be reported. The aim is to make the home a place where the family feels safe again and where any repeat approach is seen, recorded and passed to police the same day.

Those measures should be written down with a review date, so that they are stepped back deliberately when the risk falls, rather than left in place indefinitely or dropped the moment the family feels better.

High net worth security services and the limits of private security

High net worth security services have clear legal limits, and families should understand them. In California, private security officers must be registered with the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, and companies that provide them must be licensed. Officers who carry firearms need additional permits. Private investigators are licensed separately. None of these licenses grants police powers.

That means a private team should not:

Conduct its own criminal investigation in a way that could interfere with the police case.
Confront or contact a suspect, other than to protect the family in the moment.
Obtain records, access accounts or conduct surveillance in ways the law does not allow.
Use force beyond what the law permits for the protection of people.
Promise the family outcomes that only the justice system can deliver.

Respecting those limits is not a weakness. It protects the family from legal risk, protects the case from being compromised and keeps the relationship with the police healthy. A provider who suggests otherwise is not someone I would let near a family’s case.

Within those limits, there is a great deal a professional team can do: protect the family, harden the home, preserve evidence, organize information, liaise with investigators, watch for repeat approaches and support the family through a stressful period. At MSB Protection we also do our own in-house research and development, and part of that work is building better ways to capture, organize and share incident information so that what our teams see reaches investigators in a form they can use.

What recommended HNW security teams document

A practical way to tell whether a team is ready to work with the police is to look at its documentation. Recommended HNW security teams write things down, consistently, in a way that can be handed to an investigator. We wrote more about choosing a team in our post on what separates recommended HNW security teams.

I expect a team to keep:

Daily logs that record people, vehicles and events of note, with times.
Incident reports written promptly after any incident, factual and without opinion.
A record of every report made to police, with report numbers and investigator details.
An evidence register showing what was preserved, by whom and where it is stored.
A file for each person of concern, with photographs, history and every known contact.
Records of changes to security made in response to a case.

When a case reaches a prosecutor, that documentation can make a real difference. A pattern of approaches recorded over months tells a story that a single incident does not.

Family office high net worth individuals security: a law enforcement liaison file

Family office high net worth individuals security benefits from a simple tool: a liaison file for each residence and each family member who faces a known risk. The file should be held by the point of contact and kept up to date. It contains:

The local station, non-emergency number, and community liaison or lead officer for each residence.
The responder information sheet for each residence.
The specialist units or agencies relevant to the family’s risks.
Embassy and consular contacts for regular travel destinations.
Kidnap and ransom insurance details, if any, and how to activate them.
The family’s lawyer and their contact details.
All open reports, with numbers and investigators.
Persons of concern files.
Protective orders in force and their conditions.
The evidence routine, for staff and the security team.

Frequently asked questions

How does private security for high net worth family members work with the police?

Private security protects the family day to day, preserves evidence, organizes information and supports officers on scene. Police investigate, arrest and bring cases to prosecutors. A good program is designed so that the two roles complement each other.

Should I report every threat to the police?

Report any threat of violence, and any pattern of concerning contact. Even if police cannot act immediately, a report creates a record that can support later action. Preserve the original messages and bring an organized summary.

What evidence helps police after a home invasion?

Clear footage of faces, vehicles and plates, preserved quickly before it is overwritten; separate written accounts from each witness; an undisturbed scene; and any messages or calls connected to the incident.

Can private security investigate a crime against my family?

Private security officers are not police and should not conduct criminal investigations that could interfere with a police case. They can preserve evidence, document events and support investigators. Licensed private investigators work under separate rules, and any private inquiry should be coordinated with the family’s lawyer and the police.

What should we do if we are told not to call the police in a kidnapping?

Call your security lead immediately and follow your plan. The decision about involving authorities should be made deliberately, with specialist advice, and in the United States families are generally well served by involving law enforcement quickly.

Bringing law enforcement into the security plan

In Gauteng, a businessman was freed after 36 days once his family connected with a police task force. In Solihull, an attack captured on home security footage was still unsolved ten months later. In Boca Raton, recorded voicemails led to an arrest. In each case, what the family and the police could do together shaped the outcome.

Private security for high net worth family members does not replace the police. It prepares for them, supports them and keeps the family safe while they work. That means a relationship with the local station before anything happens, evidence routines that staff actually follow, one point of contact, an organized file and protection that is adjusted to each stage of a case.

For the full framework, read our 2026 guide to high net worth security. If your family is dealing with a threat, or you want to prepare before one arrives, our executive protection and residential security teams can help, and you can contact us in confidence.

Sources

About Michael Braun

Michael Braun is a former Special Unit Operator, former Manager at Gavin de Becker & Associates, and Founder & CEO of MSB Protection, an executive protection and residential security firm serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Braun has built his career at the intersection of specialized protective operations, executive protection, residential security, protective intelligence, and security risk management. His experience spans special-unit operations, leadership within Gavin de Becker & Associates, and the development and oversight of private protection programs within demanding UHNW environments.

He has been recognized by The Top 100 Magazine as a leading CEO in the private security field and is the subject of an upcoming Marquis Who’s Who feature highlighting his leadership and contributions to the profession.

Today, Braun is recognized for his work in executive protection, UHNW estate security, residential protection, protective intelligence, adversarial security assessments, and security auditing throughout Beverly Hills and Southern California.

His work focuses on moving private security beyond simply “providing a body” and toward intelligence-led, risk-based protection programs designed to identify vulnerabilities before an adversary can exploit them.

Looking for Executive Protection or Residential Security Services?

If you are a high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth individual, family office, estate manager, chief of staff, or executive in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Malibu or Southern California, MSB Protection provides executive protection, residential security, 24/7 protection, protective intelligence, medical-readiness planning, and security risk management.

We evaluate the complete security environment, from threat exposure and residential vulnerabilities to personnel, technology, procedures, protective intelligence, and emergency response, and build a program around the risks that actually exist.

Contact us for a confidential consultation or message us at +1 (805) 285-2807.

Private Security for High Net Worth Family: Police Liaison