Bodyguard in Miami
Hiring a bodyguard in Miami: the questions people ask first.
Are bodyguards legal in Miami?
Yes, under Chapter 493 of the Florida Statutes. An unarmed officer holds a Class D licence; carrying a firearm on duty requires a Class G in addition. The agency itself holds a Class B. All three are verifiable, and you should verify them.
What a bodyguard costs in Miami
From USD 900 per day (the EUR 850 market base) for one officer on twelve hours covering one principal. Armed Class G cover, a second officer, an armoured vehicle and the event weeks all price above that.
How much notice we need
At least seven days. Art Basel week, Formula 1 and the winter season are the exceptions and are committed months ahead, when the whole city reprices and the good officers are already taken.
Armed or unarmed protection
Both are lawful and available. A Class G officer may carry on duty; a Class D officer may not, whatever his background. For most Miami visitors unarmed cover with a good driver is the honest answer, and we will say so.
Where we cover
South Beach and Miami Beach, Brickell and downtown, Star, Palm and Hibiscus Islands, Fisher Island, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Bal Harbour and Sunny Isles, plus Wynwood and the Design District.
Who your protection officer is
Chapter 493 licensed officers from a licensed agency, many with law enforcement or military backgrounds. English, Spanish and Portuguese are all readily available in this market, which is unusual and genuinely useful.
In Miami the paperwork is the product.
Miami has more private security companies than almost any comparable American city, an enormous range in quality, and a licensing system that tells you precisely what you are buying if you know to ask. That is the single most useful thing on this page. Under Chapter 493 of the Florida Statutes an unarmed protective officer holds a Class D licence, and carrying a firearm on duty requires a Class G on top of it. A Class D officer with a pistol is not a discreet arrangement, he is an unlicensed one.
The city itself is not especially dangerous in the districts international clients use, but it is not Portofino either. What actually happens is opportunistic: vehicle break-ins and follow-home robbery from restaurants, clubs and jewellers, watch theft, and the specific pattern of a target being selected in a valet queue or a lobby and followed. Almost all of it is defeated by a driver who is paying attention and a route that is not the obvious one. Send your dates and addresses and you get one proposal with a final rate attached.
Chapter 493: Class D, Class G, and what to ask for
Private security in Florida runs under Chapter 493 of the Florida Statutes, administered by the state. Three licences matter to a client. The agency holds a Class B licence to supply security services at all. The individual unarmed officer holds a Class D. The individual armed officer holds a Class G in addition to the Class D, which requires separate firearms training and periodic requalification.
Ask for all three by number. A legitimate agency provides them without hesitation, and the licence status is a matter of public record rather than something you have to take on trust. The reason this matters more in Miami than in most cities is the sheer size of the market: there is a large, competent, properly licensed sector here and a substantial informal one operating alongside it, and from a website they look identical.
The follow-home pattern, and why the driver defeats it
The crime that most affects wealthy visitors to Miami is not a street confrontation. It is being selected somewhere visible, a restaurant, a club, a jeweller, a valet queue, a hotel lobby, and then followed to a quieter place. The pattern is well documented locally, it targets watches, bags and vehicles, and the point at which it becomes dangerous is always the arrival, when the car has stopped and everybody is looking at the luggage rather than the road.
A security-trained driver breaks this. He notices the vehicle that left when you left, he does not take the direct route home, he does not stop where the geography favours someone else, and he treats the arrival at the residence as the part of the journey that needs attention rather than the end of it. For a large share of Miami clients that driver, rather than an officer walking beside them, is what actually removes the risk.
Miami Beach, Brickell, the islands and the mainland
The districts behave very differently. South Beach is dense, pedestrian, late and heavily policed, and the exposure there is the walk, the valet and the club exit rather than the street itself. Brickell and downtown are corporate, vertical and quiet after business hours, where the questions are the garage and the lift lobby. Star, Palm, Hibiscus and Fisher Island are gated with controlled causeway or ferry access, which changes the residential problem entirely but not the movement one.
Beyond those, Key Biscayne and Coconut Grove are residential and calm, Coral Gables is established and low-key, and Bal Harbour and Sunny Isles run north along the beach. Wynwood and the Design District are where a lot of the evening activity has moved, and they are livelier and less policed than South Beach at the same hour, which is worth knowing before a late night rather than after.
Airports, private aviation and arrivals
Miami International is large, busy and slow at peak, and the drive from it to Miami Beach crosses causeways that are the whole timing question. Fort Lauderdale is a genuine alternative for some arrivals and is frequently the faster door-to-door option despite being further away. Private aviation runs through Opa-locka, which is the standard business and private field for Miami, and Miami Executive.
We meet principals inside the terminal rather than at the kerb, hold the vehicle in an agreed position, and time departures against the actual traffic rather than a published estimate. The arrival is also where the follow-home pattern most often begins for visitors, so the run from the airport to the residence is planned rather than improvised.
Art Basel, Formula 1 and the season
Miami has a calendar that reprices and reshapes the city several times a year. Art Basel Miami Beach in December brings an extraordinary concentration of wealth, art in transit and private events, and it is the single busiest week in the local security market. The Formula 1 weekend does something similar around Hard Rock Stadium. Boat show, Music Week and the winter season each have their own patterns.
In those weeks everything is committed months ahead: hotels, vehicles, and the officers themselves. Event work is also a different discipline from personal protection, involving venue advance, arrival and departure routes that are not the ones everyone else is using, and coordination with venue security rather than around them. If your trip falls in one of these weeks, plan in months.
Residences, condominiums and yachts
Residential briefs in Miami split three ways. A condominium in Brickell, Sunny Isles or on the beach comes with its own access control, so the live questions are the garage, the lift lobby, the valet and how much the front desk knows about your movements. A waterfront house on one of the islands or in the Grove is the opposite: a dock as well as a gate, a service entrance, landscaping that provides cover, and staff who between them know the routine.
The third is the boat. Miami is a major yachting centre and marina-based clients have the same shore-side exposure as anywhere: the walk from the dock, the tender, and the fact that a vessel is a fixed and very visible address for as long as it stays. Crew handle much of this well, and the sensible arrangement supports them rather than duplicating them.
Celebrities, public figures and the Miami profile
Miami has a permanent population of recognisable people and a local industry that is comfortable working with them. The particular tension here is that visibility is part of the city’s culture: being seen is often the point of the evening, and a protection arrangement that fights that will simply be ignored by the client it is meant to protect.
So the work is built around it rather than against it: controlled arrivals and departures, an officer who manages the door and the walk rather than standing at the shoulder all night, a driver positioned where he can actually move, and a decision about which parts of the evening are public and which are not. Where a genuine threat profile exists, armed Class G cover is available and lawful.
Celebrity close protectionWhat the work actually looks like in Miami
For most visitors it is a maintained vehicle, a security-trained driver who understands the follow-home pattern, and an officer for the parts of the programme that warrant one: an event, a jeweller, a late club exit, a family group moving together. It is a short call the evening before. It is a decision not to take the direct route back to the house at two in the morning.
Where the profile is higher, a second officer, armed Class G cover and an armoured vehicle come in, and Miami is one of the few destinations on this site where all three are readily and lawfully available. But the common mistake here is buying visible manpower and skipping the driver, which is exactly backwards for the risk that actually exists.
Who hires close protection in Miami.
Visitors from the region
Families and executives from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and Argentina, for whom Miami is a second home. Spanish and Portuguese officers are readily available here, which is unusual.
Corporate and Brickell travel
Directors and investors working downtown and in Brickell, where the exposure is the garage, the lift lobby and the movement rather than the district.
Artists, athletes and recognisable clients
Clients for whom being seen is part of the evening, needing controlled arrivals and departures rather than a presence that fights the point of the trip.
Art Basel, Formula 1 and the season
Visitors whose trip falls in a week that reprices the whole city, where venue advance and non-obvious routes matter and everything is committed months ahead.
Island and condominium stays
Families on Star, Palm, Hibiscus or Fisher Island or in a beach condominium, where the residential arrangement and the driver carry the work.
Marina and vessel-based clients
Owners and charter guests, where the shore side is the exposure and the sensible arrangement supports crew rather than duplicating them.
Bodyguard, close protection or a security driver in Miami?
Bodyguard is the everyday word and the one most people search. Close protection is the professional term for the same work done properly: the officer, plus the route, the vehicle, the advance on each address and the contingency behind them. Executive protection is the corporate framing and normally includes the driver and the vehicle. In Florida the distinction is written into the licence: a Class D officer is unarmed protective security, a Class G officer may carry on duty, and the agency holds a Class B to supply either.
Personal security and private security are broader words that also cover static guarding of villas, sites and events, which is a different licence discipline and a different skill from moving with a principal. Confusing the two is the most common way money gets wasted: a guarding company posts a man at a gate, and nobody has planned the tender, the transfer or the walk from the car. A security detail means more than one officer. A security driver is frequently the single most useful line on the quote. In Miami specifically the security driver is usually the item that actually defeats the local risk, because the follow-home pattern is a vehicle problem before it is a personal one.
For most visitors the right answer is a security-trained driver and one officer for the parts of the trip that genuinely need one, rather than a detail attached from morning to night. Describe the trip and we will tell you which of the three it is, including when the honest answer is that a driver and a good plan are enough. See also armed protection in Miami, Palm Beach and bodyguard laws by country.
“In Miami, ask for the licence number before you ask about the man. The first answer tells you whether the second one matters.”
Hire a bodyguard in Miami
Send your dates, the property or the yacht, and the addresses on the itinerary, and receive one proposal with a final rate attached, confidential from the first message.
Make an enquiryWhat a bodyguard costs in Miami.
Licensed close protection in Miami starts from USD 900 per day (the EUR 850 market base) for one officer on twelve hours covering a single principal, with the final rate shaped by the profile, the season and the itinerary, confirmed on enquiry with no obligation. A security-trained driver with a suitable vehicle is quoted separately. Above the base: armed Class G cover, a second officer, armoured vehicles, residence and island cover with overnight presence, yacht support, event weeks such as Art Basel and Formula 1, female officers, and Spanish or Portuguese matching.
Where an itinerary covers several destinations it is quoted as one programme with one named supervisor rather than as separate bookings. See also how much a bodyguard costs and what a security driver costs.
Protection in related destinations.
Algoz FZ-LLC (Trade License 5033995 | TRN 105119056700001) is licensed by RAKEZ for business-person services and lifestyle development consultancy. We do not directly provide armed or unarmed security, bodyguard or close protection services. All operational execution is carried out exclusively by licensed third-party partners holding the required local permits (in Florida: agencies and officers licensed under Chapter 493 of the Florida Statutes, Class D for unarmed security work and Class G for armed). We provide direct assistance and support in partnership with locally regulated providers, in compliance with local law. Clients are responsible for obtaining any required permits. All activity complies with UAE law and RAKEZ regulations.