RescueRanger
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[PART 1]
This is one subject I am very passionate about so I would like to add my two cents if I may! Personal safety and security is down to common sense. It's all down to situational awareness, to begin with, followed by impact factors and your capacity and ability to respond to the threat.
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of areas left in our world where you are immune to threats to your personal safety. With increases in crime such as theft, rape, terrorism and assault, it is in our best interest to pay attention.
This post is not covering the entire subject of self-defence, it may give you some food for thought.
It is also important to mention that whilst however no one is totally immune from possibly becoming a victim of a crime, learning how to be more alert and aware of your surroundings and keeping an eye out for signs of trouble is a good start.
As any good self-defence trainer will tell you, the best self-defence is to avoid the situation entirely. So let's get started, first, we are going to look at how the mind of criminal works and then compare this to the thought process of the victim:
The mental process of a criminal are broken into three simple steps:
1. First, a target is selected
2. A plan is made
3. The crime is committed
A victim is at a disadvantage because they have to go through a four step process:
1. They have to be aware of their surroundings
2. They have to evaluate the situation
3. They have to think of a counter plan
4. Finally, take action on the plan.
As a potential victim goes through these four steps, they are running through the phases of the “personal safety spectrum”.
This system is a simplified version of the “Cooper Colour Code” which is named after the person who developed it, Colonel Jeff Cooper of the United States Marine Corps, the colour code was designed to teach US Marines about maintaining mental readiness and how to respond to threats based on severity and exposure.
The personal safety spectrum, which is what I am going to be talking about is a more simplified version designed for personal safety awareness:
Here is the list of the conditions “phases” of the personal safety spectrum:
1. Condition Grey: In a safe place such as your home, and are not concerned with your surroundings.
2. Condition Yellow: When you are outside driving or walking down the street, you should be in Yellow condition. You should be taking in information, assessing risks. The reason you upgrade from condition grey to yellow is because you have left the comfort of a controlled environment, such as your “home” and as such have a greater need to pay attention to the environment around you.
For example:
You are proceeding down a sidewalk, a person approaches and asks “what time is it”? At this point, most people will look at their watch, this is actually a common distraction technique used to cause inattention to your surroundings.
3. Condition Red: In this condition you should be ALERT, look at the person/threat and decide what you will do and your decision, the act upon that decision. Once you are ready to act, you upgrade to Condition Green.
4. Condition Green: When you see an individual approaching you and decide you don’t wish contact, change your direction by moving away from the individual.
5. Condition White: This is a state of panic and you don’t know what to do.
So you can see, that it pays to be alert and aware of your surroundings as you may never know what may be around the corner. For example, if somebody approaches you, there are four things you need to be thinking about:
1. Hands: Where are their hands and what are they doing with their hands. 55% of our communication is through body language, for example: if someone makes a fist, chances are they are going to hit someone with it. But if they don’t have anything in their hands, then you should start looking for the second thing which is weapons.
2. Weapons: Guns, Knives or anything within that person's reach that can be used against you. Also known as a weapon of opportunity.
3. Friends and Associates: Is the person alone or is he in a group? Remember that many crimes are committed in pairs.
4. Escape: Finally consider your options to escape, where are you going to run to, are you boxed in, are you blocking the exit of the suspect? Remember that cornered criminals are more likely to use violence, so keep this in mind when considering an escape route.
This video shows some examples of pre-contact queues:
Here is a fine example of what happens when you fail to pick up on pre-contact queues telling you to "fight or flight":
Guard your personal space, When approached by someone whom you do not trust always try to keep him/her outside of what is referred to as your “Intimate space”, simply put, keep strangers who approach you and you don’t trust at an arms length. There are three kinds of Spaces you need to be concerned with when it comes to personal safety:
1. Intimate space: 0-1.5 Feet (The only people you should allow into your intimate space are people you trust such as your friends and family).
2. Personal space: 1.5 Feet – 4 Feet (This is the ideal range to deal with strangers, it makes it difficult for someone to try and grab your clothing, or throw a punch. You should always try to maintain a distance out of “arms reach” when dealing with strangers you may feel are a threat. This space should allow you enough of a gap to quickly run through the four steps to be able to protect yourself.
3. Social space and public space: 4 Feet – 12 Feet ( This is the distance you should aim to keep from people in public, remember that even at 4 Feet, you are still maintaining the “Arms length” distance from a potential threat.
Observation:
This is a very important skill to learn and develop, not only will help keep you safe, it can also help when completing a FIR and if you notice anything out of the ordinary during your day to day activities such as a suspicious car or package, or even an unusual smell coming from something unexpected you can report it to the authorities.
https://www.samaa.tv/video/2017/02/cctv-footage-of-gun-attack-on-police-van/
Remember if it doesn't look right or if it doesn't sound or smell right, report it! When observing your surroundings, use the look, scent, listen method. Start from head and go to toes, clothing information such as shirts, pants, shoes, accessories, and then consider the physical characteristics of the individual such as:
1. Body shape
2. Skin colour/ Eye Colour
3. Hair [colour and length]
4. Height
5. Gender
6. Age
7. Distinguishing features including what weapon was used?,voice, accent, strange smells such as “Charred hands, or smelling like chemicals etc.”
8. Finally record the direction of travel: Which way were they going.
This is one subject I am very passionate about so I would like to add my two cents if I may! Personal safety and security is down to common sense. It's all down to situational awareness, to begin with, followed by impact factors and your capacity and ability to respond to the threat.
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of areas left in our world where you are immune to threats to your personal safety. With increases in crime such as theft, rape, terrorism and assault, it is in our best interest to pay attention.
This post is not covering the entire subject of self-defence, it may give you some food for thought.
It is also important to mention that whilst however no one is totally immune from possibly becoming a victim of a crime, learning how to be more alert and aware of your surroundings and keeping an eye out for signs of trouble is a good start.
As any good self-defence trainer will tell you, the best self-defence is to avoid the situation entirely. So let's get started, first, we are going to look at how the mind of criminal works and then compare this to the thought process of the victim:
The mental process of a criminal are broken into three simple steps:
1. First, a target is selected
2. A plan is made
3. The crime is committed
A victim is at a disadvantage because they have to go through a four step process:
1. They have to be aware of their surroundings
2. They have to evaluate the situation
3. They have to think of a counter plan
4. Finally, take action on the plan.
As a potential victim goes through these four steps, they are running through the phases of the “personal safety spectrum”.
This system is a simplified version of the “Cooper Colour Code” which is named after the person who developed it, Colonel Jeff Cooper of the United States Marine Corps, the colour code was designed to teach US Marines about maintaining mental readiness and how to respond to threats based on severity and exposure.
The personal safety spectrum, which is what I am going to be talking about is a more simplified version designed for personal safety awareness:
Here is the list of the conditions “phases” of the personal safety spectrum:
1. Condition Grey: In a safe place such as your home, and are not concerned with your surroundings.
2. Condition Yellow: When you are outside driving or walking down the street, you should be in Yellow condition. You should be taking in information, assessing risks. The reason you upgrade from condition grey to yellow is because you have left the comfort of a controlled environment, such as your “home” and as such have a greater need to pay attention to the environment around you.
For example:
You are proceeding down a sidewalk, a person approaches and asks “what time is it”? At this point, most people will look at their watch, this is actually a common distraction technique used to cause inattention to your surroundings.
3. Condition Red: In this condition you should be ALERT, look at the person/threat and decide what you will do and your decision, the act upon that decision. Once you are ready to act, you upgrade to Condition Green.
4. Condition Green: When you see an individual approaching you and decide you don’t wish contact, change your direction by moving away from the individual.
5. Condition White: This is a state of panic and you don’t know what to do.
So you can see, that it pays to be alert and aware of your surroundings as you may never know what may be around the corner. For example, if somebody approaches you, there are four things you need to be thinking about:
1. Hands: Where are their hands and what are they doing with their hands. 55% of our communication is through body language, for example: if someone makes a fist, chances are they are going to hit someone with it. But if they don’t have anything in their hands, then you should start looking for the second thing which is weapons.
2. Weapons: Guns, Knives or anything within that person's reach that can be used against you. Also known as a weapon of opportunity.
3. Friends and Associates: Is the person alone or is he in a group? Remember that many crimes are committed in pairs.
4. Escape: Finally consider your options to escape, where are you going to run to, are you boxed in, are you blocking the exit of the suspect? Remember that cornered criminals are more likely to use violence, so keep this in mind when considering an escape route.
This video shows some examples of pre-contact queues:
Here is a fine example of what happens when you fail to pick up on pre-contact queues telling you to "fight or flight":
Guard your personal space, When approached by someone whom you do not trust always try to keep him/her outside of what is referred to as your “Intimate space”, simply put, keep strangers who approach you and you don’t trust at an arms length. There are three kinds of Spaces you need to be concerned with when it comes to personal safety:
1. Intimate space: 0-1.5 Feet (The only people you should allow into your intimate space are people you trust such as your friends and family).
2. Personal space: 1.5 Feet – 4 Feet (This is the ideal range to deal with strangers, it makes it difficult for someone to try and grab your clothing, or throw a punch. You should always try to maintain a distance out of “arms reach” when dealing with strangers you may feel are a threat. This space should allow you enough of a gap to quickly run through the four steps to be able to protect yourself.
3. Social space and public space: 4 Feet – 12 Feet ( This is the distance you should aim to keep from people in public, remember that even at 4 Feet, you are still maintaining the “Arms length” distance from a potential threat.
Observation:
This is a very important skill to learn and develop, not only will help keep you safe, it can also help when completing a FIR and if you notice anything out of the ordinary during your day to day activities such as a suspicious car or package, or even an unusual smell coming from something unexpected you can report it to the authorities.
https://www.samaa.tv/video/2017/02/cctv-footage-of-gun-attack-on-police-van/
Remember if it doesn't look right or if it doesn't sound or smell right, report it! When observing your surroundings, use the look, scent, listen method. Start from head and go to toes, clothing information such as shirts, pants, shoes, accessories, and then consider the physical characteristics of the individual such as:
1. Body shape
2. Skin colour/ Eye Colour
3. Hair [colour and length]
4. Height
5. Gender
6. Age
7. Distinguishing features including what weapon was used?,voice, accent, strange smells such as “Charred hands, or smelling like chemicals etc.”
8. Finally record the direction of travel: Which way were they going.
