Bodyguard in the USA
Can a visitor hire a bodyguard in the United States?
Yes, and it is one of the most straightforward countries in the world to do it in, provided it is done through the licensed system. There is no federal bodyguard licence in America: private security is regulated state by state, and sometimes city by city, so the officer who meets you at Teterboro works under New York rules, the one who drives you along Collins Avenue under Florida rules, and the one on the Strip under Nevada rules. Algoz holds that map. We arrange a licensed American close protection officer who meets you inside the terminal or on the ramp at the private aviation terminal, a security driver who knows which freeway is actually moving at that hour, and the same team stays with you through the hotel, the meetings, the stores and the evening, then hands over inside Algoz when you fly to the next city. Send your dates and your cities and a confidential proposal follows within 24 hours, in your language, with the officer profiles and the final rate, and no obligation attached.
What international clients ask before their first American trip.
Is it legal?
Yes. Private security is licensed by each state: a company licence for the firm, a registration or guard card for the officer, and a separate armed permit where the state allows armed work. Algoz coordinates only inside the licensed framework of the state you are standing in, and never with an officer flown in from abroad.
What it costs
Professional close protection in the United States starts from USD 900 per day for one officer on twelve hours. A security driver with an executive vehicle is quoted separately, and in a country built for the car it is usually the most useful addition. The final rate comes with the proposal; the FAQ below gives the detail.
How fast
Plan on seven days. Vetting the brief, releasing the right officer in the right state and completing the advance work takes that long. Under 48 hours means additional fees and no guarantee of cover. Armed authorisation needs a minimum of 30 days and is never guaranteed.
Armed or unarmed
Both exist in America, which is not true of most countries we work in. Florida, Texas, Nevada, California and Illinois all license armed private protection; New York City in practice does not for a visiting principal. Most American details run unarmed and low-profile, and we tell you honestly which your itinerary needs.
Where we cover
New York, Boston and Washington in the Northeast; Miami, Palm Beach and Orlando in Florida; Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Aspen and Honolulu in the West; Houston and Dallas in Texas; Chicago in the Midwest. Each has its own page below, and one brief carries across all of them.
Who you get
Vetted American officers, many from the military, federal and city law enforcement and corporate executive protection, working in English, with Spanish-speaking officers standard in Florida, Texas and California. Coordination in Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, French, Italian, Chinese and Japanese; the written day plan comes in your language.
A continent with one passport stamp and fifty rulebooks.
The United States receives more high-value international visitors than any other country: executives and delegations to New York, Washington, Houston and the Bay Area; families from the Gulf and Latin America in Orlando, Miami and Los Angeles; patients at the medical centres of Houston, Boston and Minnesota; collectors at Art Basel Miami Beach and the New York auction weeks; and the recognisable, who come for the Met Gala, the Super Bowl, Formula 1 in Las Vegas and the award season in Los Angeles. It is a country where the distances are American, the cities are safe in the way a visitor expects a wealthy democracy to be safe, and the exceptions are specific, documented and avoidable: the follow-home robbery that begins at a Beverly Hills valet, the smash-and-grab in a San Francisco parking garage, the snatch on a Michigan Avenue sidewalk, the fraud call that targets a foreign visitor by name.
What makes America different for a protection brief is not the threat picture but the law. Private security is a state matter. New York registers its guards through the Department of State; California through the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services; Florida issues Class D and Class G licences; Nevada works through its Private Investigators Licensing Board; Texas through the Department of Public Safety; Illinois through its Department of Financial and Professional Regulation; Washington DC through its own licensing department with the Metropolitan Police; and Colorado, where Aspen sits, has no state licence at all and leaves it to the cities. Firearms law changes at every state line too. A detail that moves from Miami to New York to Las Vegas in one week is three legal frameworks and three sets of partners, and that is exactly the work Algoz does so that you see one team and one plan. Our clients are executives and family offices from the Gulf, Europe, Russia and the CIS, Latin America and Asia, their assistants and chiefs of staff, and the agencies and producers who book for talent. The brief is given once; from the aircraft steps in the first city to the departure gate in the last, one contact plans, drives and covers it.
Why hire a bodyguard in the United States?
Follow-Home Robbery
Crews mark a watch, a bag or a vehicle at a high-end restaurant, club or jeweller and follow the target to a hotel or rented house. Documented enough in Los Angeles that the LAPD created a task force, and present in Miami, New York and Houston too. It is the risk a professional detail is best placed to break.
Car Break-Ins & Luggage Theft
A parked vehicle with visible bags is a target in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and the Florida tourist corridors, and a rental car marks a visitor from across the lot. A security driver who never leaves the vehicle, and a plan that never leaves luggage in it, remove the problem entirely.
Visible Wealth
Fifth Avenue, Rodeo Drive, Bal Harbour, the Design District, the Strip and the jewellers of every city are where serious pieces are bought and worn, and where a recognisable face is read at a glance. The walk back to the car is where it matters, in every American city at once.
Event Density
UN General Assembly week, Art Basel, the Las Vegas Grand Prix, CES, the Super Bowl, the Met Gala, the Masters, the Kentucky Derby, Coachella and award season concentrate the same people, the same jewellery and the same photographers into the same few blocks on the same few nights.
An Armed Country
The United States has more civilian firearms than people. For a visitor this changes little day to day and everything in a confrontation: a detail is built to avoid, de-escalate and leave, not to engage, and armed cover is a licensed, assessed decision rather than a reflex.
Scams Aimed at Visitors
Fake rideshare drivers at the airport curb, the "ticket inspector" on the subway, rental scams on short-let platforms, and telephone fraud that uses a visitor's name and hotel. None of it is dangerous and all of it is aimed at a wealthy visitor with nobody local beside them.
Bodyguard Services across the United States
Licensed Officers
State-licensed close protection officers with military, federal and police backgrounds, dressed for a Fifth Avenue lobby rather than a checkpoint, NDA-bound, briefed to the Algoz standard and supervised throughout, in whichever state the day takes place.
Secure Transportation
Executive sedans and SUVs with security-trained drivers, routes planned with freeway alternates, the vehicle positioned so the walk from any door is seconds, and armoured options where an assessment supports them. See executive transportation.
Airports, FBOs & Private Terminals
Meet inside the terminal at JFK, MIA, LAX or any major gateway, or on the ramp at Teterboro, Van Nuys, Opa-Locka, Henderson Executive, Hanscom and the other business aviation fields, with our coordinator speaking to your ground handler directly.
Executive & Delegation Protection
Board visits, roadshows, investor weeks, conference and trade fair days, plant and campus visits, and government weeks in Washington, with credentials and building access arranged before the morning begins and the itinerary kept under NDA.
Family & Female Officers
Family protocols for theme parks, the malls, the schools and universities, medical stays and days out, with female close protection officers available for principals and children who are better served by one.
Residence, Hotel & Estate Security
Suites at the palace hotels, short-let houses in Beverly Hills and Miami Beach, apartments on Billionaires Row, estates in Palm Beach, Aspen and the Hamptons, from a single overnight to a standing detail, with the house surveyed before the first night.
Who may protect you in each state, and under which law.
Department of State
Guard companies hold a Watch, Guard or Patrol Agency licence and every officer a security guard registration from the NYS Department of State, with training set by the Division of Criminal Justice Services. Armed work needs a separate armed guard registration and a pistol licence, which in New York City is rarely practical for a visitor. See New York.
BSIS
The Bureau of Security and Investigative Services licenses companies as Private Patrol Operators and officers through the guard card; armed work adds the exposed firearm permit. Covers Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Class B, D and G
The Division of Licensing issues the Class B agency licence, the Class D security officer licence after 40 hours of training, and the Class G statewide firearm licence for armed work. Covers Miami, Palm Beach and Orlando.
PILB
The Private Investigators Licensing Board licenses the company and registers the officer through the guard card; a firearm endorsement after a board-approved course is required before anyone works armed. Covers Las Vegas.
IDFPR & the PERC
Private security contractors are licensed by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, officers hold the Permanent Employee Registration Card, and armed work requires the Firearm Control Card after the state's firearms training. Covers Chicago.
DLCP & the MPD
Security officers are licensed by the District's licensing department in cooperation with the Metropolitan Police Security Officers Management Branch; armed work is the Special Police Officer commission. Virginia (DCJS) and Maryland license the suburbs. Covers Washington.
Watch, Guard or Patrol Agency
Agencies are licensed by the State Police under Chapter 147 of the General Laws, with a bond and a Massachusetts address, and armed officers hold a licence to carry. Covers Boston.
Arriving: the airports, the FBOs and the first hour
The most public moment of any American trip is the curb outside arrivals, and the second is the immigration hall before it. Customs and Border Protection admits you, not us, and no private officer may shorten that queue; what we can do is make everything after it disappear. At JFK, Newark, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dulles, Boston, O’Hare and the Texas gateways the officer meets you landside at the point you choose, discreetly or with a name board, luggage is handled and counted, and a vehicle is staged so the walk is seconds, with the route into the city chosen for the hour rather than the map. Principals arriving by private aircraft land at the business aviation fields that serve each city, Teterboro for Manhattan, Van Nuys for Los Angeles, Opa-Locka and Fort Lauderdale Executive for Miami, Henderson Executive for Las Vegas, Hanscom for Boston, Hobby for Houston, Love Field for Dallas, Aspen itself in the mountains, where customs is cleared in the FBO and the aircraft steps are a few metres from the vehicle. Our coordinator speaks to your ground handler directly rather than through you. Entry rules are set by the United States government and change: citizens of the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries, Qatar among them since 2024, travel on an ESTA, most others on a B-1/B-2 visa, and we check your passport against the rule of the day when you send the dates.
New York, Boston & Washington: the Northeast
The Northeast is where most business trips to America begin. New York is the financial and cultural capital, with Billionaires Row and the Fifth Avenue hotels, the auction weeks, Fashion Week and the Met Gala, and the September week when the UN General Assembly turns Midtown into a motorcade grid; it is also the city where armed private protection is least practical, so a New York detail is built on planning, a driver and a discreet unarmed officer. Boston is the medical and academic capital, where a large share of our work begins at a hospital in the Longwood area or a university in Cambridge, and where parents of international students ask for a quiet presence rather than a visible one. Washington is the city of delegations, embassies and the spring and autumn meetings of the international financial institutions, where protection is coordinated with protocol and the host security rather than improvised around them, and where the work regularly crosses into Virginia and Maryland and their separate licences. The corridor between the three runs by rail and by road, and the same team and the same brief follow the principal along it.
Miami, Palm Beach & Orlando: Florida
Florida is the American state international clients know best. Miami is the capital of Latin America in all but name, the winter address of the Gulf and the Northeast, and the host of Art Basel in December and the Grand Prix in May: Brickell and Sunny Isles for the residences, Bal Harbour and the Design District for the stores, South Beach for the evenings, and a follow-home and valet pattern that mirrors Los Angeles. Palm Beach is the quieter season, Worth Avenue and the estates, the clubs and the charity calendar, with a different kind of attention and the same need for discretion. Orlando is the family trip: the theme parks, the resort hotels, the villas at Windermere and Golden Oak, and days that are long, hot and crowded in exactly the way that makes children and jewellery hard to keep track of. Florida licenses armed private protection through the Class G licence and is one of the states where it is genuinely available, which does not mean it is usually the right answer; our armed protection page for Miami explains when it is.
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Aspen & Honolulu: the West
The West is where America is most photographed. Los Angeles runs on award season, premieres and the hillside estates of Bel Air and Malibu, and on the follow-home pattern that begins at the valet of a restaurant on Sunset. Las Vegas is the only major American city built entirely around visitors: the resorts of the Strip with their several entrances, the convention weeks, the fight nights and the Grand Prix in November, where the exposure is recognisability and the crowd rather than crime. San Francisco and the Peninsula are the technology capital, where the principal is a founder or an investor, the risk is the parked car and the parking garage, and privacy matters more than presence. Aspen is the mountain season, one road, one small airport and the houses on Red Mountain, with no state licence to lean on and therefore the strictest vetting we apply anywhere in America. Honolulu is the Pacific resort for families from Japan and the mainland, Waikiki and Kahala and the islands beyond, under Hawaii’s own licensing board.
Houston, Dallas & the medical cities: Texas
Texas is the American state most Gulf, Latin American and energy clients actually spend their time in. Houston is the energy capital and the home of the largest medical complex in the world, the Texas Medical Center, where a large share of our Texas work is a patient and a family in the city for weeks, an early appointment on an enormous campus, and a residence in River Oaks or Memorial for the duration. Dallas is the corporate and investment capital of the state, Highland Park and Preston Hollow for the residences, the Fort Worth side for the fairs and the arenas, and a calendar that fills in the autumn with the State Fair and the football season. Texas licenses the Personal Protection Officer, a Level IV licence written specifically for bodyguard work, and commissioned armed officers at Level III, which makes it the state where an armed detail is most routinely available and most routinely unnecessary. Distances here are measured in miles rather than blocks, and a security driver is not an addition to a Texas detail but the centre of it. Medical stays elsewhere in America, at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, the Boston hospitals and the New York cancer centres, are covered under the same brief through medical travel protection.
Armed or unarmed in America: the honest answer
Because the United States licenses armed private protection in most states, visiting clients often assume they should ask for it. Usually they should not. Almost every assignment we run in America is unarmed, built on advance work, a skilled security driver, a discreet officer and a plan for leaving, and that is the right answer for a family in Orlando, an executive in Manhattan, a collector at Basel and a founder in Palo Alto alike. Armed cover changes the legal exposure of everyone in the vehicle, narrows the pool of officers to those holding the state’s armed permit, and is genuinely called for only where a threat assessment supports it: a specific, credible threat, a principal in the news, a residence in a documented pattern, cash or high-value transit. Where it is called for, Florida, Texas, Nevada, California, Illinois and most other states license it, and Algoz arranges it through officers holding the Class G, Level III, PILB firearm endorsement, BSIS exposed firearm permit or Firearm Control Card, with a minimum 30-day lead and no guarantee of authorisation. In New York City, Washington DC and Massachusetts it is rarely practical for a visitor and we say so. See armed protection in New York and armed protection in Miami for the detail.
How an American detail is actually run
It starts with your itinerary, not with a headcount. We read the dates, the cities, the profile, the hotels and the season, then propose the smallest team that genuinely covers it: most often one officer with a security driver in each city, sometimes a two-officer rotation for an event week or a delegation, occasionally a full detail with advance work at every venue and a lead officer who travels with the principal from state to state. In each city the officer is licensed under that state’s rules, NDA-bound and briefed to the Algoz standard; every hotel, residence and venue is walked before you arrive; and one Algoz contact stays with the engagement from the proposal to the final departure flight, so you are never managing an unfamiliar vendor in an unfamiliar city, let alone five of them. The proposal, the schedule and the written day plan are provided in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Chinese or Japanese on request, and the coordinator who writes them answers your messages in that language throughout. How close protection works.
Multi-city itineraries, private aviation & the handover
Few American trips stay in one city. New York to Miami for the weekend, Los Angeles to Las Vegas for a fight night, Houston to Aspen for the holidays, Washington to New York by train, the Bay Area to Los Angeles by private jet: each leg is a new state, a new licence and, left to chance, a new vendor. Inside Algoz it is one programme. The outgoing team closes the day at the aircraft steps or the station platform, the incoming team is briefed on the family and the itinerary before the wheels touch down, the written day plan carries over without a gap, and the vehicle, the luggage and the valuables are planned as part of the brief so that protection never pauses at a departure gate. Private aviation makes this cleaner still, because the FBO on each end is a controlled environment where our coordinator has already spoken to the handler. For itineraries continuing to Mexico City, London, Paris or Dubai, the handover happens inside Algoz, not on your desk.
What a visitor needs before the officer can meet them.
Algoz does not handle immigration, but a protection plan that ignores it fails at the first queue. Citizens of the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries, which include most of Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and, since September 2024, Qatar, travel on an ESTA for stays of up to 90 days; the fee rose to USD 40.62 on 16 October 2026 and the authorisation should be applied for days, not hours, before departure. Citizens of other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, India, Brazil and most of Latin America, travel on a B-1/B-2 visitor visa obtained at a US consulate, where appointment waits vary from days to months by post. A USD 250 visa integrity fee on most non-immigrant visas was legislated in 2025 and is being implemented in stages; whether it applies to your visa on your dates is something we confirm with you at the time, not something to assume either way. Global Entry, Mobile Passport Control and airline fast-track lanes shorten the hall where they are available to your nationality. Entry rules are set by the United States government, change without much notice, and are the client’s responsibility; what we promise is that the officer, the vehicle and the plan are on the other side of the door when you come through it.
The American calendar that fills the same streets every year.
January opens with CES in Las Vegas and the health-care investment week in San Francisco; February brings the Super Bowl to a different city each year and New York Fashion Week; March and April the Houston energy weeks, the Masters in Augusta and Coachella in the California desert; May the Met Gala in New York, the Kentucky Derby and the Miami Grand Prix; summer the Hamptons, Aspen’s festivals, the Fourth of July and the US Open at the end of August; September the UN General Assembly week in Manhattan and the second Fashion Week; October and November the New York auction season, the State Fair of Texas, the Las Vegas Grand Prix and Thanksgiving; December Art Basel Miami Beach, the holiday weeks in Aspen, Palm Beach and Orlando, and New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Each concentrates crowds, closures, photographers and the people who follow wealth into a few blocks on a few nights, and each is a week to book early.
Medical stays in Houston, Boston, Rochester, Cleveland and New York, school and university terms, negotiation and roadshow weeks in New York and the Bay Area, late evenings anywhere a valet and a parking garage are involved, and the arrival itself after a long flight are the quieter moments where even a short stay benefits from an officer and a security driver. And for families, the practical value is the same in every American city: the children see the parks, the beaches and the museums while someone else watches everything approaching them.
"America has fifty rulebooks and one standard that matters: the person beside you knows the city, the law and the way out."
Hire a Bodyguard in the USA
Seven days is the notice we ask for. Shorter notice we look at case by case, but under 48 hours carries an urgency fee and cannot be guaranteed. No one puts a licensed officer in place in 24 hours, in any state. Share your dates, your cities and your hotels and we respond with a clear proposal in your language, confidential from the first message.
EnquireWhat a bodyguard in the United States costs.
As a guide, professional close protection in the United States is, in 2026, from USD 900 per day for a single principal on twelve-hour cover, the market base, with the final rate shaped by the profile, the threat picture, the city and the season, and confirmed on enquiry with no obligation. Specialist profiles, armed cover where a state licenses it, short-notice mobilisation and the event weeks carry a premium, and New York, Los Angeles and Aspen in season sit above the national base. A security driver with an executive vehicle is quoted separately and, in a country built for the car, is usually the most useful addition; team details and multi-city programmes are quoted above the base, to the brief. Where a stay combines protection, transportation, airport greeting and concierge into one coordinated programme, engagements typically start from EUR 1,800 per day. Payment is by card or bank transfer in USD, EUR, GBP or AED.
Further reading: what a bodyguard costs, bodyguard prices in US dollars, our full close protection pricing guide, how a security driver works, and how modern close protection is run.
Bodyguard services in the American cities our clients visit.
Bodyguard in New York
Billionaires Row, UNGA week, the Hamptons.
Bodyguard in Miami
Brickell, South Beach, Art Basel, the Grand Prix.
Bodyguard in Los Angeles
Beverly Hills, award season, the hillside estates.
Bodyguard in Las Vegas
The Strip, convention weeks, fight nights, the Grand Prix.
Bodyguard in San Francisco
The Peninsula, Sand Hill Road, privacy first.
Bodyguard in Chicago
The Gold Coast, McCormick Place, the Loop.
Bodyguard in Washington DC
Delegations, Embassy Row, the meeting weeks.
Bodyguard in Houston
Energy weeks, the Texas Medical Center, River Oaks.
Bodyguard in Dallas
Highland Park, the corporate city, the State Fair.
Bodyguard in Boston
The hospitals, the universities, Back Bay.
Bodyguard in Orlando
The theme parks, the resorts, the family week.
Bodyguard in Palm Beach
Worth Avenue, the estates, the season.
Bodyguard in Aspen
Red Mountain, the holiday weeks, one road in.
Bodyguard in Honolulu
Waikiki, Kahala and the islands.
Armed Bodyguard in New York
When armed cover is lawful, and when it is not.
Armed Bodyguard in Miami
Class G cover in Florida, assessed not assumed.
Executive Transportation
Security drivers and chauffeurs in thirteen American cities.
VIP Concierge in the USA
The hotels, the tables, the tickets and the jet, one contact.
One officer, one brief: specialist protection in America.
Medical Travel Protection
Houston, Boston, Rochester, Cleveland and New York: airport to clinic, an officer who waits, and nobody who needs to know.
Student Protection Abroad
Low-profile cover for sons and daughters at American schools and universities.
Senior Travel Protection
A licensed officer who travels with an older parent, door to door, across the Atlantic and across America.
Hand-Carry Courier
One officer, one journey, no handovers, for watches, jewellery, art and documents.
TSCM Bug Sweep
Hidden cameras, microphones and trackers found in a hotel suite or a rented house before you walk in.
Celebrity Close Protection
Red carpets, arenas and after-parties, from Los Angeles to New York.
Algoz FZ-LLC (Trade License 5033995 | TRN 105119056700001) is licensed for Businessmen Services and Lifestyle Development Consultancy by RAKEZ. Operational services such as security, transportation and concierge are delivered through vetted, licensed specialist partners, selected, contracted and overseen by Algoz. All operational execution in the United States is performed exclusively by third-party partners licensed in the state where the work takes place (for example a Watch, Guard or Patrol Agency licence and guard registration in New York; a BSIS Private Patrol Operator licence and guard card in California; Class B, D and G licences in Florida; PILB licensing in Nevada; IDFPR licensing in Illinois; DPS Private Security licensing in Texas; a Chapter 147 agency licence in Massachusetts; and the District of Columbia’s security officer licensing). We provide direct assistance and support in partnership with local regulated providers, complying with federal, state and local law. Clients are responsible for obtaining any required approvals, including their own entry authorisation to the United States. Armed services require a minimum 30-day lead time for authorisation, which may be refused, and are not available in every jurisdiction. All activities comply with UAE laws and RAKEZ regulations.