About Privateer

[Heritage & Culture, Honor & Integrity]

A history lesson. Let's take a trip back in time...all the way back to the mid-17th century. Seafaring was the primary mode of international trade, and trade routes bustled with merchant vessels nearly sinking under the load of valuable goods. The primary mode of warfare and military transport, at the time, was also on the sea. Governments and merchant companies alike required protection for their goods, and the capture of these goods was often crippling to the economies of both the source and destination countries. Military was often stretched in war activities and Governments simply didn't possess the manpower to protect every load, nor carry out wartime maritime activities such as raiding enemy vessels and engaging in naval warfare. The answer was the Privateer. At the time, a Privateer was defined as a "private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war". [1] Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as a letter of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. The emergence of the modern state system of centralized military control caused the decline of privateering by the seafaring definition by the end of the 19th century.

The tales of heroism and valor displayed by privateers during the golden age of privateering (and piracy) live on to this day, and the tooth-and-nail determination of privateers shaped the culture of the human race worldwide. Privateers were masters of their destiny, determined to find success where others feared to tread, and to win victory for those who commissioned them in the name of patriotism, valor and a little bit of capitalism. Is there anything more American? Privateers stood as private interests in the face of insurmountable odds, and together, they changed the outcome of wars, and ultimately, our society.

Today, that same culture of heroism, valor, and tooth-and-nail determination to win victories against our client's security threats is carried on within our agency. We embrace the historical culture of our namesakes' heroism and valor, and vow to serve our clients with the same.

Symbolism & Esprit De Corps

All of our security professionals must graduate from our 80 hour intensive training academy. This academy is intense, demanding, and jam-packed full of information. There is an injury rate, a high washout rate, and a brutal test phase that must be passed to graduate from our academy. We provide over 10 times the amount of training provided by virtually every security company. As such, our graduates earn a title to distinguish them from the average security guard. This title is "PRIVATEER". Privateers graduate from our academy with a DPS unarmed and armed certification, NRA pistol, rifle, and shotgun training certificates, and our academy specific certificate that includes a variety of esoteric arts and skills designed by our Master instructors and employing more than 50 years of combined on the street experience in security operations, with a background in military warfare, information technology and intelligence sectors. Our extensive focus on Arizona law and justified use of force training ensures that our privateers provide the highest level of security while minimizing liabilities.

As Privateers progress though their careers, they may earn authorization to wear specific patches and pins that symbolize specific statuses within our organization or certifications earned by the privateer. By far the most controversial is our use of the "jolly roger" symbol patch. This patch is primarily associated with piracy, but for us, is merely a stylish way of symbolizing our acknowledgement of allegiance to our client. We are not law enforcement officers and are never to be confused with law enforcement officers, nor are we to lose sight of the fact that while it may, at times, serve our client to enforce the law in our capacity as privateers, law enforcement is not a priority nor a general concern of a Privateer. In the age of the Privateer, the "Jolly Roger" symbolized a privateer who had gone rogue from government orders, essentially becoming a "pirate". While pirates were known to violate the law, we reject this meaning as our internal meaning, instead re-appropriating the independence of piracy from government to symbolize our purely private, non-governmental interests. With that being said, Jolly Rogers shall never be worn by Privateers commissioned by government clients, as they are indeed operating under the commission of a Government Entity.

A word about 'unarmed' services, and why we don't provide them:

One philosophy at Privateer sets us apart from other companies right away: We believe that an unarmed guard is useless. Consider the age of the active shooter, the animosity towards people in uniform due to the political climate, and the undeniably excellent quality of electronic surveillance systems today. One can hardly justify the liability of an unarmed, human security guard - complete with the pitfalls of hiring a human, compared to the 24/7, never forgetting, evidence recording, cost cutting presence of a quality surveillance system. Camera systems don't call in sick, they don't get hurt on the job, and the don't make errors that leave their employers liable to civil actions. Consider also that a uniformed guard is most likely to be the first one attacked in an ambush (robbery) scenario, and the idea of a uniformed, unarmed guard should become an instant source of revulsion for any person. You are essentially hiring a human sacrifice.

A security professional worth the investment in these times needs to be properly equipped and trained to respond to threats in time to save lives. We believe that in order to accomplish this objective, our privateers must be properly equipped and properly trained to respond to complex threats with a 0% failure rate. This means not only having the means to exercise the most extreme force in the most extreme cases, but also all of the intermediary tools to handle the more common, less extreme incidents. To this end, Privateer does not normally offer any form of unarmed security services. PSF mayoffer unarmed services to select organizations, provided the location qualifies by being a specific type of organization (church, school, hospital) and only after a thorough assessment to determine the safety of the site and the task at hand, as well as our response capabilities in the event of a life threatening incident. Because unarmed work comes with a special risk to the security professional, and require more support assets on our behalf to ensure the safety of our professionals, clients should expect rates to be higher with an unarmed expectation.