Today, Pinkerton is a subsidiary of Securitas AB, a global security agency with home offices in Stockholm, Sweden. The company offers services that include security guarding and mobile patrolling, monitoring, consulting and investigation. With over 300,000 employees in 53 countries, they pretty much have their thumb on any crisis that may pop up.
Providing protection and security to those who can afford them, is a better way of putting it, and that includes businesses and corporations around the world. Now, with the world in the throes of a climate crisis, the security agency has set about developing a plan for climate change.
They are specifically looking at climate change’s “threat multiplier.” This is based on the near certainty that as the temperature continues to creep up during the next 100 years, weather events will almost certainly provoke chaos, so it was only natural that Pinkerton would consider ramping up its security protocols.
“Because bottom lines are being affected by extreme weather and by changes in real estate as a result of flooding or wildfires, they’re already beginning to act,” said freelance journalist Noah Gallagher Shannon. Shannon spent some time training with Pinkerton agents at a shooting range called Club de Tiro Jaribú, in Mexico which the company sometime uses for agent and client training.
He wrote about the company’s new focus for the New York Times Magazine and also spoke with Day 6 host Nana aba Duncan about what he had learned.
As Shannon points out, the company has always been quick to adapt to changing demands from their clients. Today, instead of beating up working people who stood up to robber barons like Andrew Carnegie, the company provides cybersecurity and the protection of trade secrets.
Now, that protection can include everything from armed warehouse defense, executive extraction, 24-hour surveillance, chartered helicopters and planes and escorted guarded cargo shipments. Actually, when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, Pinkerton got a lot of calls from clients needing the protection of warehouses or service centers.
So, as Shannon said, “Pinkerton can basically charge what they compared to Uber surge pricing to fly agents down there and protect warehouses, get employees food and water, and basically be the eyes and ears for that corporation on the ground.”
Duncan asked Shannon what an executive extraction entailed. Actually, it is exactly what it sounds like – getting an executive out of a dangerous situation.
“That could be a wildfire that’s closed off multiple roads and routes out — that could be a hurricane, that could be a typhoon, that could be political unrest, I don’t know. In part, I’m saying I don’t know because much of this is still speculative on their part,” Shannon said.
Making money off people’s fears and misery
Shannon also added: “They’re responding, in many ways, to anxieties and fears and offering package services that can ameliorate those fears.” And perhaps, that is what they are doing. But, it is always best to include a worst-case scenario in your plans.
Paz Larach, executive vice-president with Pinkerton explained that their statistical and tactical approaches were fundamentally connected. All businesses exposed themselves to risk, which had to be mitigated, insured or, more relevantly, defended against.
Keep in mind that according to the World Bank, by 2050, as many as 140 million people could be displaced by sea-level rise and extreme weather, driving escalations in crime, political unrest, and resource conflict. Of course, much of this is already happening now.
So reading between the numbers is smart, and needs to be baked into a company’s risk. “And if there’s a disaster every year, which is happening more and more, it makes more sense to have dedicated staff on standby,” Larach said.
The website, Boing Boing has a slightly different take on Pinkerton’s plan. Corey Doctorow writes that Pinkerton’s plan for climate change is to have a mercenary army that guards one-percenters as the seas rise.
Doctorow points out the sectors that rely on cheap labor will face more unrest during a climate event, and that’s not to mention the struggle of communities, not corporations, to keep up with the lack of clean water and food, medical treatment and crime in the aftermath of storms, with landslides blocking first responders.
So all-in-all, Pinkerton getting in on the ground floor of security during an extreme weather event that causes chaos is an interesting subject for discussion. However, many people are wondering if this is the right approach to dealing with the climate crisis. Is it?
