The Slovenian police also provide protection of persons and designated premises, facilities and buildings and their surroundings. Close protection usually takes place behind the scenes and away from the public eye. With the exception of the "men in black" who discreetly protect dignitaries, all other activities take place quietly and almost invisibly, which makes them no less difficult, responsible and demanding.
The main task is protecting the most exposed, publicly known persons from security threats. Providing physical protection to the highest-ranking domestic and foreign representatives of authorities, such as heads of state or government and ministers, is an essential aspect of ensuring state security, maintaining national stability and governance structures and, consequently, international relations. In addition to this, we protect state facilities used for ceremonial purposes and diplomatic and consular representation offices in Slovenia and the residencies of ambassadors in accordance with international obligations.
In doing so, we help to maintain respect for the legal order of the state and its national legislation and European conventions such as the Vienna conventions on diplomatic and consular relations, on which rests the international foundation of the protection of foreign protected persons and facilities. Evidence that we have been successfully performing work in this field for decades is the successful provision of security to foreign statesmen and other senior representatives on their visits to Slovenia. These events received major media attention and contributed to international recognition of our work.
Such high-ranking guests have included Pope John Paul II, US President Bill Clinton and the Queen Elizabeth II, Dalai Lama, while the close protection also performed well during the meeting of the US and Russian presidents, George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, and in many other events, the most challenging ones certainly including those taking place during the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Security and Protection Centre
The unit that has been in charge of protecting persons and facilities since 1991 is the Security and Protection Centre, which operates as part of the General Police Directorate. It mainly employs security specialist officers who, in addition to everyday tasks such as providing security to Slovenian statesmen and facilities of national importance, provide close protection services to foreign dignitaries visiting Slovenia at least 70 times a year.
For a long time now, close protection officers have been more than just drivers for high-ranking officials. The scope of their work is now much broader. Their duties include protective, operational, technical and physical security of persons and facilities. This means that, in addition to being in close proximity of the person they protect, they also carry out observation and patrolling and preventive searches of facilities and their surroundings, collect and analyse information, prepare risk assessments, etc. Alarm and video surveillance systems and mechanical protection systems are of great assistance to them. In order to make their work even more efficient, they also liaise with foreign colleagues to exchange valuable experience.
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Security and Protection Centre
