When Simon Morgan was bodyguard to members of the British royal family, paparazzi pursuits were an almost daily occurrence.
But Morgan, who served with the elite SO14 royalty personal protection unit within the Metropolitan police, said he would never advise a “cat and mouse chase” with a fleet of photographers hellbent on snapping the picture that could make their fortune.
He told the Guardian the frenzied climate that fuels the sort of paparazzi pursuits that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they experienced in New York on Wednesday was worse than it was when Diana, Princess of Wales died nearly 30 years ago.
Now a director of operations and training at Trojan Consultancy, a personal protection firm based in west London, Morgan, who served as a personal protection officer to the late Queen among other senior royals, said he would always attempt to engage with the paparazzi.
“When I was with royal protection it was almost a daily occurrence,” he said.
“Your first port of call is always communication – if you see the paparazzi outside a restaurant or outside a nightclub or whatever, engagement is always the first positive step.
“Explain to them that you’re part of a police protection operation and happy for them to take pictures but they’ll take them on your terms: ‘You snap there, you won’t chase the car and block cars in’ and so on.”
Morgan said requests for cooperation would “fall on deaf ears” – but a chase was not an option that should be considered as a police officer or a private operator.
“Because, as has been highlighted in this case [Harry and Meghan], it then becomes a public safety issue,” he said. “In a heightened state of awareness driving cars at potentially speed through narrow, populated streets, you’re now the cause potentially of what could be a fatal accident. You don’t want to get into that.”
Morgan said law enforcement was invariably called for backup, which was easier for members of the police service but still possible as a private operator if it had good relations with the authorities.
If this is not available and a chase unfolds, then a place of safety must be sought, he said.
“The chase is taking place because of you, so you ask: can you get to your residence, can you get to your place of safety – we always used to favour a police station – can you get to the police station and seek refuge there and let the incident die down?
“There are different strategies you can use, but playing that cat-and-mouse game is one that is fraught with danger.”
All royal protection officers are required to complete the national police protection drivers’ course, and at royalty protection level officers already have to be a class one police driver. Subsequently, they are put on the protection officers’ drivers’ course, which covers areas such as anti-hijack driving.
Having a qualified security driver is a vital part of any protection operation, Morgan said.
As the duke and duchess have been at pains to emphasise, the attention from the paparazzi takes a significant toll on their wellbeing.
This is not lost on royal protection officers, Morgan says, who see an element of pastoral care towards his clients, or “principals”, as part of the job.
In the case of the Duke of Sussex, he will be dealing with the incident at hand but also the stress of past trauma from the death of his mother, he said.
“The duke firmly blames the paparazzi for that relentless pursuit of his mother that ended in her death. For him, it’s not just the incident [this week], it’s the trauma of previous incidents that would have come back to him.”
Morgan said reassuring the principal was one of the many roles of the protection officer and part of that was making sure the team was fully qualified.
Looking ahead, Morgan does not see the paparazzi picture changing soon.
“It’s about supply and demand. There is a demand for these images. People want to know what celebrities are up to, what high-profile people like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are up to.”
Police protection officers have an understanding of the legislation available to them – but so do the paparazzi, he said.
“You have to be clear with your principal that we will not be playing a cat-and-mouse game with the press,” he said. “We will not be driving through the streets of London, Paris, Rome, whatever the case may be. We will stop and get out, and we will go to a place of safety.”
