NEW YORK CITY, New York: U.S. companies are now spending more money than ever to protect their top bosses. This comes after rising threats and two shocking killings of high-level executives in Manhattan in the last eight months.

After a shooting last week in New York City that left four people dead, many companies quickly added more plainclothes security guards around their office buildings. Glen Kucera, head of the protection services at Allied Universal, a security company, said the number of security teams in the city has doubled since the attack.

One of the victims was Wesley LePatner, a top executive at Blackstone. Rich Friedman, a former colleague and now chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said, "It's horrible. I've never known anyone who was murdered." Authorities believe her killing was random. The shooter was actually aiming for the National Football League's (NFL) headquarters, which is in the same building where LePatner worked. The gunman also killed a police officer, a building guard, and a real estate employee before killing himself.

Citigroup executive Ed Skyler wrote to employees the next day, saying the attack was "shocking and close to home." He said it was normal for people to feel uneasy and reminded them that Citigroup had already increased security at its Manhattan headquarters over the past year.

Chris Pierson, head of the cybersecurity company BlackCloak, said threats against executives have significantly increased since 2020. He gave the example of a man who was arrested for killing a lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota. That man had reportedly made a hit list of other political figures and found their home addresses online.

Ben Joelson, a security expert at the Chertoff Group, said threats are higher now than at any other time in his ten years in the field. He added that social media has made the situation worse by helping spread anger and complaints against leaders.

In December, UnitedHealthcare's CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in New York. At the time, people thought it was a one-time, rare tragedy. But since then, there have been more targeted killings, including two staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington and the Minnesota attack.

After the latest Midtown shooting, many companies contacted security advisors. Matthew Dumpert, who leads security risk at the firm Kroll, said both existing and new clients called in after the recent violence.

According to new data from Equilar, a company that tracks executive pay and benefits, spending on top executives' safety rose 16 percent last year to a record US$106,530 per person. This includes money for home alarm systems, private guards, and online protection.

More executives are getting this kind of protection than before. In 2020, about 23 percent of top bosses at big U.S. companies had personal security. By 2024, that number had jumped to nearly 34 percent. For CEOs alone, the percentage went up from 21.9 percent in 2020 to 32.4 percent in 2024. The average cost of their protection also rose, up to $77,976 from $40,052.

Tech companies showed the most significant increase, with a 73.5 percent rise in security coverage for executives since 2020. However, communications companies spend the most money, on average, $1.2 million per executive each year.

Big companies like Walmart, General Motors, American Express, and Broadcom have already told the public they spent more on executive protection after the killing of Brian Thompson. And experts expect this trend to continue as safety concerns grow.