No Panaceas, Secret Techniques or Magic Bullets

One of the occupational hazards of being a security consultant is that people I meet in social settings, will often ask rather complex security questions, and then expect simplistic answers.Worse yet, some people already have a strong opinion and expect me to support their viewpoint. While I always try to be polite in such situations, as a matter of ethics, I cannot just provide overly simplistic or rubber stamped answers. Security is a dynamic discipline and while basic concepts are important the actual application of these concepts may differ considerably.

The following is a short-discussion of two of the most common personal security questions I hear:

"Should I Study Martial Arts?"

I’ve heard this question asked numerous times and my answer is always the same…maybe. People study martial arts for a variety of reasons including physical fitness, discipline, cultural understanding, art, sport, and, of course personal protection. The fact is that the serious and long-term study of martial arts, under a competent instructor can yield results in all of these areas.

That being said, the way most people study martial arts does not lead to the long term success they desire. For the most part, Americans are busily engaged in too many activities. If you are like most people, life simply gets in the way. I say this as one with experience. I started studying Karate through a YMCA program when I was in middle school. I loved the program and continued on for a few years. Unfortunately, my Sensei (teacher) eventually moved and I stopped practicing. In college I studied Tae Kwon Do and, once again, I loved the program. Unfortunately after graduating, getting married and starting my career, I again stopped training. Then in 2003, I found a Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do school. Again I loved practicing, but the demands of my career and other commitments eventually led me to stop training.

The reality is that my experience is typical. People struggle to find the balance between life and work and this struggle often manifests itself in the on and off way in which they study martial arts.

If you decide to study martial arts for personal protection skills, remember the following:

(1.) The study of martial arts will EVENTUALLY, lead you to a point where you can adequately defend yourself against most potential adversaries, but it is a long road. Don’t expect quick or lasting results without a permanent commitment.

(2.) As you progress in martial arts, it requires more study, not less.

The next question people ask is, “What style of martial art should I study?” That’s a loaded question. Everyone seems to think that their art is the best and this leads to endless debates about the effectiveness of one art over another. My experience is that the style of the art matters much less than the commitment and skills of the individual student.

If you decide to study martial arts here are some tips on selecting a school:

(1.) Ask people you know who are already studying about their schools

(2.) Visit some schools, take a few lessons, and see if you like it

(3.) Be wary of schools that guarantee a black belt in a certain period of time

(4.) Be wary of schools that seem primarily concerned with money

(5.) Be wary of schools that won’t tell you how much your lessons will cost

(6.) Be wary of schools whose instructors seem to relish conflict and fighting

(7.) The closer a school is to your home the more likely you are to consistently study

“Should I Carry a Gun?”

Once again my answer is always the same…maybe. While I am a strong supporter of the individual right to keep and bear arms, I do not think that everyone should carry a firearm. People who are mentally incapable of handling such a responsibility should not be able to own and/or use a firearm. The same goes for those convicted of violent criminal acts, children and those under the influence of drugs or alcohol. All our rights as Americans have some applicable restrictions and the Second Amendment is no different in this regard. The political debate surrounding gun rights is simply an ongoing discussion to determine the extent of those restrictions. As a law abiding citizen, you have the right to carry a firearm (with some restrictions). The question is should you?

Before you answer that question, I suggest careful consideration of following:

(1.) Do your personal risks justify this particular countermeasure?

(2.) Can you legally obtain the necessary permits?

(3.) Can you continually comply with applicable firearms laws?

(4.) Are you willing to obtain training on how to responsibly use your weapon?

(5.) Are you willing to deal with the day-to-day inconveniences of carrying a firearm?

(6.) In a life or death situation, are you willing to kill another human being?

(7.) If you end up killing someone in order to defend yourself or your family, are you willing to deal with the potential legal, financial and psychological consequences of such an action?

As I’ve written in previous posts, if you are an able adult, you are responsible for your personal security. The study of martial arts and the carrying of firearms can both provide effective means of personal protection, however like all aspects of personal security, the decision to employ such countermeasures should only be undertaken after careful consideration. You alone can make that decision for yourself. I encourage you to think the matter through and choose wisely.


By: SA Watson

Anatomy of a Crime: The Dark Side of Risk Analysis

In one of my earlier postings, I discussed how a risk analysis is the foundation upon which all security programs are based. When planning for personal security, you need to evaluate your risks and vulnerabilities and then make rational choices based on that evaluation. This is a defensive use of risk analysis; it is designed to keep you safe and ensure that you can go about your day-to-day activities without anxiety or debilitating fear.

Unfortunately, there is a dark side to risk analysis; it can be used offensively as well as defensively. Just as you evaluate your risks and vulnerabilities in order to keep yourself safe, a rational criminal will assess his risks before committing a crime. Criminals risk being arrested, harmed, or killed and many of them take those risks seriously.

Your objective is to make yourself a poor return on investment for the perpetrator. The potential victim who makes him or herself too risky for an attack will likely be rejected in favor of another victim. To exploit this, one has to understand the process by which a rational adversary may select victims.

Ask yourself, in order for a person to physically attack me, what must they do?

Risk Analysis from the Perpetrator’s Perspective

Stage 1: Target Assessment: The perpetrator must select a target. Target selection can be based on some or all of the following:

1. What type of crime does the perpetrator want to commit?

2. Does the intended victim fulfill the requirements of the perpetrator?

3. Is the intended victim distracted and unaware of their surroundings?

4. Is the intended victim handicapped or have some other condition that makes them appear to be an easy target?

5. Does the intended victim show fear or timidity?

6. Is the intended victim carrying bags or other items that may lessen their ability to defend themselves or run?

7. Is the intended victim wearing restrictive clothing that is likely to interfere with their ability to run or fight?

Stage 2: Target Isolation: In order for the perpetrator to commit the crime they must be able to isolate the target.

1. Is the intended victim alone?

2. Are there bystanders present?

3. Does the terrain provide areas for concealment?

4. Are there people within hearing distance?

Stage 3: Probing: Probing is the initial contact between the perpetrator and the intended victim. In the probing stage, the perpetrator is “interviewing” the potential victim and testing boundaries. This process may take place over a long or short period of time. The perpetrator wants to see how the victim reacts when confronted.

1. Is this going to be someone who will struggle, fight or submit?

Stage 4: Distraction: The perpetrator may use ruses to distract the victim from the impeding attack. Some of these may include:

Can you help me find my lost child? A perpetrator approaches his target and says that his young daughter went into the ladies room and hasn’t come out for quite awhile. He then asks if you’d mind going in to check on her. Of course, there is no daughter and you have now isolated yourself in a room with only one escape route.

Can I use your cell phone? Many people will say yes to a request to use a cell phone or to give someone a quarter to use a pay phone. If you are dealing with a criminal you may be assaulted while reaching into their purse or coat to retrieve the phone or quarter.

Faking a medical emergency: You walk out to your car and see someone is laying on the ground clutching his chest. Many people would go over to try and help the person and this is admirable; however, if used as a distraction, you are now in close proximity to the perpetrator and are either on, or close to, the ground. This positioning limits your ability to maneuver or escape.

My car won’t start. Do you have jumper cables? If you have jumper cables, they are most likely in the trunk of your vehicle. Once you open the trunk and bend over to reach inside, you are off balance and can be thrown into the trunk of your own vehicle.

Can I help you with that heavy bag? Politeness and/or chivalry aren’t completely dead, but it is much rarer than it used to be. Maybe the young man asking if he can help you with the heavy bag is being polite. Maybe he just wants an excuse to talk or flirt with you and has no intention of harming you. Alternatively, maybe he is trying to lull you into thinking he isn’t a potential threat. Be wise and be wary of people who are too polite for the circumstances.

Stage 5: Attack: In an attack, the perpetrator’s objective is to completely overwhelm the victim by a combination of force and threats. The idea is to so scare the victim that he or she panics, freezes and fails to fight back. Remember, many victims of violent attacks do not submit because of force or injury, but because of threats.

Stage 6: Defeat: The final stage of the attack where the victim is compliant.


Disrupting the target selection process: Some General Guidelines for Personal Security

Accept: Accept the fact that anyone can be a victim of violence. While risk varies from person to person, anyone can be a victim. If one fails to recognize this potential, they will have no reason to plan. Thinking about violence can be scary. Keep things in perspective; most people aren’t out to harm others.

Assess: Try to view yourself as a perpetrator would. Practice “defensive victimology”. Ask yourself, if you were looking for a victim, would you look for someone like yourself?

Plan: Ask yourself “what if” questions. What are you willing to give up to a criminal and under what circumstances? At what point, if any, are you willing to commit to personal combat? The act of planning right now can make you more confident and lessen your reaction time during a critical incident.

Avoid: Avoid potentially dangerous situations. Be aware of your environment- train yourself to notice small details. If your car was locked when you left it there, it should still be locked when you return. If you feel that something is wrong, it probably is.

Act: If you see a dangerous situation, report it to the relevant authorities. By making the area safer for others, you will also make it safer for yourself. If confronted, deescalate the situation, distract the perpetrator and, if possible, escape.

Perspective:
The point of the above is not to make you afraid or fill you with anxiety. The reality is that most people have no intention of harming you. Still, criminals often plan their activities and as a law abiding citizen you are at an inherent disadvantage. You do not know the specific intentions of the people around you or the time and place where someone may choose you as a victim. By thinking, planning and deciding on a general course of action now, you should be better positioned to avoid trouble.

In my next two postings, I will address a couple of questions that I have been asked many times over the last several years: “Should I study martial arts?” and “Should I carry a gun?”

By: SA Watson

Rational Choice, Personal Responsibility & Countermeasures

Personal security measures are, or at least should be, a matter of rational choice. Although I write about security and have years of training and experience, it is not my intention to tell you what to do. You see, it is my firm conviction that, if you are an able adult, then you are responsible for your own personal security. While this may seem like an obvious and common sense statement, my experience tells me that it is neither. I often hear otherwise intelligent people fervently argue that others are responsible for their personal security.

Here are some of the more common statements:

The Police are responsible for my protection:

No they’re not. The police do not exist to provide you with personal protective services. In fact, the police don’t even exist to catch criminals. The mission of the police is to maintain order; the apprehension of criminals is simply a means by which they accomplish that objective. Except in rare instances, the protection received by an average citizen from police activity is indirect. In other words, the police reduce the population of would be criminals via arrest. The result is fewer criminals walking the street, thus allowing you live in a safer community. These efforts should be applauded, but they cannot reasonably be called "personal" protection.

The Security people are there to protect me:

No they’re not. Private security personnel are agents of their employer and/or client. They exist to prevent or mitigate losses to the organization for which they are working. Just as with the police, the protection you receive from private security personnel is indirect; their activities displace crime from the particular facility they are assigned to protect. If you happen to be located at that facility then you are the beneficiary of that protection. Still, that is not the same thing as security personnel existing to protect you as an individual.

Bystanders will protect me:

Don’t bet the farm on that one. While the presence of other people provides a level of protection, that protection is based on the perception that other people will intervene. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

My Husband or boyfriend will protect me:

I've heard this statement from several female friends, family members and acquaintances. In all fairness, most men will protect women. Still in cases of extreme violence, the male will typically be the first target. If the male companion is taken out of commission before he realizes what has happened, he will be of little protective value to the female.

The bottom line: If you exclusively rely on others to protect you; you may be disappointed.


Developing Countermeasures

In previous posts I discussed developing a security mindset, understanding your own perceptions of danger and conducting a personal risk analysis. If you have been following these steps, you now have some questions to answer for yourself:

(1.)What high risk behaviors or activities do I engage in?

(2.) Am I willing to give these behaviors up?

(3.) If not, what can I do to mitigate my chances of being a victim?

In general, you have four basic choices for how to address risk:

Accept the Risk:

If you have seriously looked at your own high risk behaviors and activities and decided that you either cannot or do not want to change them, then you have accepted the risk. The downside of acceptance is that you are not trying to prevent the event from occurring. Still, if you can accept the potential consequences of such a decision than acceptance may be a good strategy. Keep in mind that we accept various risks every day. When we ride in an automobile there is the risk of getting in an accident, but that doesn’t stop most of us from riding in or driving cars.

Avoid the Risk Altogether:

If you have decided that one of your behaviors or activities is so fraught with danger, that it is not worth doing anymore, then the focus of your personal security program, regarding that particular issue, will be to cease the behavior or activity. The downside to this approach is if you apply it too often your quality of life will suffer and you will be afraid to engage in many of the things that give you fulfillment.

Transfer the Risk:

If after examining your risks, you decide that you still want to engage in a specific high risk activity, but don’t want to mitigate the risk or just accept the potential consequences, you can transfer the risk, however this means relying on others to protect you. As noted above, this can yield disappointing results.

Mitigate the Risk:

Mitigation occurs when you have reviewed your risks and decided that you still want to engage in a particular high risk activity, but don’t want to just accept the potential consequences or rely on others to protect you. In this case you would want to take steps to lessen or mitigate the risks you determined as high. Mitigation is the bread and butter of the security discipline and involves techniques to make yourself, your residence and other areas of your life a harder target from criminals. The next several postings will address some best practices in mitigating personal risk.

Remember as an able adult, your personal security is fundamentally your responsibility. As you think about your own high risk behaviors and activities, remember that personal security measures should come about as the result of a rational thought process; not blind fear or the attitude of “it can’t happen to me”.

By: SA Watson

Risk Analysis

The fundamental building blocks of a security program are the same whether one is talking about an organization, a nation or an individual; it is only the scale and complexity of the undertaking that changes. In the last two postings, I discussed the role of mindset and perception in the development of a personal security program. Once one has begun to adopt the basics of a security mindset and has examined how personal perceptions impact their view of danger, it becomes necessary to conduct a risk analysis.

A Simplified, Individual Risk Analysis Process:
The phrase “risk analysis” may sound overly complex and, at the organizational level, it can be. In fact, there are multiple books written and various methodologies developed for conducting a risk analysis. Fortunately, all of these techniques share some commonalities that we can apply to our everyday lives. For our purposes here the risk analysis process consists of the following steps:

1. Asset Identification: Determine what are you trying to protect. For most people the answer will be their physical well being, but the same question is applicable if you are protecting property, information or any other thing of value.

2. Consider Loss Events: What are you trying to protect yourself from? At first it may seem that everyone should be concerned about the same things, but this is not necessarily the case. A college student would likely be less concerned with robbery because traditionally, college students don’t have very much money and thus are a poor target for robbers. On the other hand, an owner of a small store making night deposits at his bank may be very concerned with robbery. So ask yourself, what types of crime am I specifically concerned about?

3. Consider Risk: What is the probability that I will become a victim? Much, but not all of this, is determined by lifestyle. Do you travel alone to high crime rate areas? Do you often place yourself in situations where you have little or no control over your surroundings? The answers to these questions and ones like them will help you determine which behaviors you engage in that raise your risks and which behaviors lower your risks.

4. Consider Vulnerability: Ask yourself, if someone tried to commit a crime against me, how likely is it that they would be successful? Do you follow predictable routines? Do you leave doors unlocked at your residence? Can you physically defend yourself? If so, how well? Do you have a weapon? If so, is it accessible and can you legally use it? Are you psychologically prepared for personal combat? Remember that when assessing vulnerability, people tend to either downplay their vulnerability to the point where it is ignored or just assume that they are completely incapable of defending themselves. The reality is almost always somewhere in between these two extremes.

5. Consider Potential Impacts/Costs: If someone successfully committed any one of the crimes you identified against you, what would the costs be? Monetarily? Physically? Emotionally? Psychologically?

6. Consider Countermeasures: A countermeasure is a means of preventing or reducing the chances of a crime occurring or, barring that, a plan to limit or mitigate the impacts of the crime. When considering countermeasures, ask yourself what, if any, of your high risk behaviors are you willing to change? How can you reduce your vulnerability and thus make yourself a harder target for criminals?

In the next posting, I’ll discuss developing and implementing countermeasures in more detail.

By: SA Watson