‘Protector’ App Hires Officers Accused Of Misconduct

Had slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson employed an armed guard by means of Protector — a brand new personal safety app billed as “Uber with guns” ― he would possibly nonetheless be alive, the corporate posited in a video reenactment of the killing.

In that reenactment, the “Protector,” recognized by HuffPost as Los Angeles Police Division officer James Zourek, describes how he seems to be for “pre-incident indicators” to detect threats. These, in keeping with Zourek, embrace “inappropriate clothes for the setting or climate circumstances, uncommon gait or lack of arm-swinging, indicating they’re concealing a weapon, and frequent checking of pockets or waistband.”

The video exhibits Zourek taking pictures the suspect as he approaches Thompson, “eliminating the menace,” as Zourek places it.

Protector guarantees to “empower people” with “entry to elite safety.” It delivers army experience “from the frontlines to your entrance door,” in keeping with its promotional supplies.

However what occurs if a Protector will get it mistaken? What if the sweatshirt-clad man swinging his arms insufficiently as he walks towards the client isn’t a menace, however a cherished one who runs chilly and has stiff joints? Tucked into the wonderful print of Protector’s terms of use settlement is language waiving the corporate of any duty if, for instance, your armed guard unintentionally shoots your dad.

Protector, the corporate claims, is “act[s] solely as a expertise platform facilitating connections between customers and unbiased safety professionals” and “can not assure particular safety outcomes or the efficiency of any particular person agent.” The armed guards obtainable by means of Protector “function as third-party suppliers, and we don’t management, direct, or assume legal responsibility for his or her actions,” the Phrases of Use settlement states.

The app was launched in February by former Fb product designer Nick Sarath. It permits customers to pick the variety of vehicles of their “motorcade” and the variety of so-called Protectors, who might be outfitted in Enterprise Formal (a jacket and a tie), Enterprise Informal (no tie), Tactical Informal (efficiency polo shirt and cargo pants), and Operator (SWAT cosplay), though the latter is presently unavailable.

Bookings begin at $100 per hour with a five-hour minimal and require a $129 annual membership, in keeping with the corporate. (When HuffPost opened the app to make a reservation with one automotive and a single Protector, the fee was $1,500.)

After Protector initially launched in Los Angeles and New York Metropolis, HuffPost requested regulators in each locations whether or not the corporate had obtained permits to function as a rideshare or black automotive enterprise. The California Public Utilities Fee confirmed that Protector didn’t have a Transportation Community Firm allow and that the company was investigating whether or not one was required. By Thursday, Protector’s companies had been pulled from Los Angeles. Nikolaj Leszczynski, an account supervisor on the PR agency employed by Protector, confirmed on Friday that “L.A. is down” however didn’t reply to a number of questions concerning the cause.

New York Metropolis’s Tax & Limousine Fee instructed HuffPost that Protector was a non-public safety firm and, due to this fact, not a part of the company’s regulatory jurisdiction.

Final yr, the same armed rideshare service known as BlackWolf quietly suspended operations in Phoenix and Scottsdale after Axios reported that it failed to accumulate the Arizona state allow required for rideshare firms.

Each Protector is a present or former member of the army or legislation enforcement, in keeping with the corporate. The corporate’s LinkedIn options flashy movies with close-up interviews of Protectors itemizing their army and legislation enforcement credentials, with pictures of them closely armed in warzones scattered all through.

“This app is an try to gamify warfare,” Mohammad Tajsar, a senior workers legal professional on the ACLU of Southern California, stated in an interview. “It’s the proper Silicon Valley gimmick. Take a pretend drawback — rising crime — supply a pretend answer that you just solely discover in video video games, gown up your personal squad of goons and roll it out to a crowd of internet-brained pseudo rich individuals who need this type of dystopian future.”

Once I first reached out to the corporate in February, Leszczynski initially indicated a willingness to schedule an interview with Sarath, the corporate’s founder, and a ridealong so I may get “the Protector expertise.” However Leszczynski later backtracked and stated that Sarath “and his Protectors are extraordinarily swamped” and will solely reply to questions over e-mail.

The corporate then declined to answer an in depth record of questions on its insurance policies, vetting and coaching practices, and the previous conduct of its contractors. As a substitute, the corporate stated in an emailed assertion, “We’re merely providing a brand new revolutionary choice within the conventional private safety area — fast entry to the safety you need with out the standard purple tape, trouble, and confusion.”

Though the app refers back to the drivers by their first names, HuffPost recognized at the very least 4 Protectors who, as of March 7, had been additionally working as Los Angeles Police Division officers, in keeping with the company: Zourek, Royce Burroughs, Nicholas Cho and Andrew Rea, none of whom responded to requests for remark. (SWNS reported that Zourek retired in January; neither Zourek nor Protectors answered an e-mail searching for clarification.)

LAPD’s worker manual permits officers to carry secondary employment after the division evaluations the proposed job and determines it isn’t “incompatible” with LAPD employment. The handbook states that LAPD officers can not tackle secondary jobs that contain utilizing the “badge, uniform, status or affect” of their place for personal achieve or benefit. LAPD didn’t reply to an e-mail asking if officers promoting their standing as LAPD officers to advertise their personal safety work violated the division’s insurance policies.

LAPD declined to reveal whether or not Zourek, Cho, Rea or Burroughs have disciplinary data with the division, so HuffPost filed public data requests beneath California’s Right To Know Act. Though that data request continues to be pending, publicly obtainable courtroom data, in addition to one of many Protectors’ public statements, present some details about the conduct of the law enforcement officials employed by Protector.

Zourek, who’s prominently featured in Protectors’ promotional supplies, has been with LAPD since 1997. A self-described “knuckle dragger,” Zourek has additionally labored as a Marine Corps Scout Sniper in Iraq, a federal jail guard and a firearms teacher. In December 2023, whereas head of LAPD’s union, Zourek gave an hour-long interview on a podcast known as “The IA Man” about his remedy by the police division’s inside affairs division, which investigates allegations of misconduct.

“100% of the job” of an inside affairs investigator must be defending cops, Zourek stated, stating that it’s a “detriment” to the police division for an officer to “really feel such as you’ve been run by means of the ringer.”

Early on in his profession, Zourek was given a 22-day suspension “for unnecessarily extending a lawful detention,” he stated on the podcast. One of many classes he realized from that incident was the significance of being trustworthy in the course of the inside investigation — up to some extent. “Look, for those who acquired a physique buried within the yard, roll the cube, don’t inform them about it,” he stated.

In 2004, Zourek put an unarmed man suspected of eradicating property from a stolen car in a carotid restraint, or a chokehold, inflicting the suspect to lose consciousness, courtroom data present.

“The LAPD ridiculously, they think about a carotid restraint, or a chokehold, they think about it a deadly use of drive,” Zourek stated on the podcast, relaying the incident. “If that’s true, then each night time in jiu jitsu, I’m committing tried murder.”

LAPD suspended the usage of carotid restraints in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. California lawmakers banned the observe later that yr.

Zourek took the case to LAPD’s disciplinary attraction board, which discovered him responsible and advisable a five-day suspension. Zourek filed a writ of mandate in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket, arguing that his conduct was cheap based mostly on the knowledge he had on the time, and that his punishment was inconsistent with LAPD’s previous observe. In 2007, a decide granted Zourek’s petition and directed LAPD to rescind the suspension and reimburse Zourek for misplaced wages, with curiosity.

Zourek has “zero classes realized” from that incident, he stated on the podcast. “I’ll do it every single day, all day, I don’t care concerning the five-day suspension,” he stated of the chokehold. “I’ll do it tonight if I am going on the market. As a result of I’m 100% in the precise.”

After the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Zourek wrote in a bunch textual content, “I haven’t seen the democrats this mad since we freed their slaves,” LAPD watchdog William Gude reported on X. Zourek was initially suspended for the textual content, however was later cleared of wrongdoing by the disciplinary board.

HuffPost requested Protector if the corporate has a use of drive coverage, gives deescalation coaching to its Protectors, has a mechanism to overview allegations of pointless drive and if it evaluations LAPD disciplinary data earlier than hiring officers. In response, Protector stated that with “rigorous vetting and intensive coaching,” their staff members comply with all legal guidelines. “They adhere to the very best requirements of professionalism, security, and integrity, with intensive experience in de-escalation techniques to make sure peace of thoughts for all.”

One other LAPD officer who works with Protector, Royce Burroughs, is presently a named defendant in a civil swimsuit introduced by a girl who alleges that he was a part of a staff of LAPD officers who, whereas responding to a hostage state of affairs, blew up a door and wall of her residence whereas she was inside, stormed by means of the outlet in her wall, and pointed weapons at her whereas she frantically tried to maintain her kittens from working away. The girl went on to endure from signs of traumatic mind damage, in addition to nervousness, melancholy, again ache and a sensitivity to loud noises, she stated within the criticism.

Earlier than Protector launched, Burroughs and fellow LAPD officer/Protector Nicholas Cho operated their very own personal safety firm known as Delta Special Operations Corp, the place they marketed being lively members of LAPD’s SWAT Group, providing personal companies beginning at $150 per hour.

A reputation search of Cho and Rea in LA’s Superior Court docket database didn’t produce any courtroom instances with allegations of misconduct.

It’s not clear who Protector is meant for. Extremely-wealthy folks with an ongoing use for personal safety will merely rent their very own safety element. The service is just too costly for most individuals and it’s exhausting to think about many situations by which somebody would have a one-time use for personal safety that doesn’t contain committing a criminal offense.

The corporate’s phrases of use prohibit particular conduct, together with hate speech, harassment, stalking, defamation and baby sexual exploitation, however doesn’t embrace a blanket ban on illegal exercise, like shopping for medicine. It’s additionally not clear how the corporate would stop its companies from getting used to hold out the exercise it purports to ban. What’s to cease an abusive man from hiring a Protector to lurk round his ex-girlfriend? Requested how it could stop such use of its companies, Protector stated, “Defending lives is a grave duty, and it’s one we take very severely. Any try to take advantage of our companies in any manner will lead to fast suspension and account termination.”

Protector plans to quickly launch a companion app known as Patrol, which might permit residents of neighborhoods in Los Angeles to crowdfund skilled neighborhood safety patrol. Like Protector, Patrol gives personal residents with the flexibility to rent present legislation enforcement officers for his or her private safety whims.

The presence of apps like Protector and Patrol “create the concern the apps declare to answer,” Tajsar, the ACLU lawyer, stated. “If the apps exist, it creates the sense that there should be crime, and we should want personal safety,” he stated, noting that crime levels are, in fact, declining.

“It’s clearly designed to attraction to wealthy folks’s anxieties, which is principally what policing in America is,” Tajsar stated.

“It’s principally class warfare proper in entrance of us.”