woman phone situational awareness
Shutterstock

By Gideon Joubert

Situational awareness is perhaps the single most important component of personal security. Yet it is also perhaps the fundamentally most misunderstood and malpracticed one.

Thousands of people become crime victims every day because they aren’t situationally aware. They unplug themselves from their environment, and don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them. And criminals, both opportunistic and otherwise, take full advantage of this situation.

Criminals aren’t Invisible, Victims are Oblivious

Don’t believe me? Just take a look around the next time you drive down any public road. At every red light you’ll see people sucked into their smartphones, completely oblivious to what’s going on around them. Others walk with ear buds in, unconcerned with the myriad strangers who enter and exit their immediate personal space as they walk down the street. And others still are so preoccupied with their own thoughts and concerns, they wouldn’t notice a bomb going off right next to them.

Inevitably when these people become victims of a smash-and-grab robbery, or get mugged in the street, they will say something like “It happened so fast! One moment and they were just there – in my face!”

Now, criminals are many things. But they are not supernatural and do not possess the capacity to instantly teleport themselves. And even though they may move fast and act aggressively when they have selected and locked-on to their intended target, they certainly telegraph their presence and intent. Chances are that the victim would not only have observed their assailant’s presence before the attack, but would also have registered them as a potential threat. That is if they were actively scanning their environment and knew what to look for.

That said, you cannot avoid or evade something you do not see. And you will not see a threat if you are not scanning for it. Which is where situational awareness comes in.

Situational Awareness is Alertness to Threats and Environment

So, what exactly is situational awareness?

Ed Lovette – co-author of Defensive Living, a superb little book – defines situational awareness as “a state of General Alertness which allows you to take the element of surprise away from the threat.”

Kelly McCann expands the definition somewhat: “Situational awareness is a cumulative alertness to threat and your environment. It enables you to notice pre-incident indicators, which are odd movements or anomalies given the situation. Cumulatively, pre-incident indicators create a visual unlikely circumstance consistent with either a contrived situation or predatorial behavior.” (I highly recommend you get a copy of Kelly’s Combatives for Street Survival. It is a must-read in my opinion.)

Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Both these definitions describe situational awareness as a state of alertness for the purpose of pre-incident threat recognition.

Hence you are actively scanning your environment for individuals whose presence and behavior (and not solely their physical appearance) are inconsistent with the baseline of the environment, and so-doing identify them as potential threat actors.

How should you scan your environment? A good rule-of-thumb is to maintain awareness of what is going on in your 10/360. That means a 10 meter circle all around you. Obviously these dimensions will change with circumstances – good luck maintaining 10/360 while stuck in an elevator! But the general application of the 10/360 scan remains valid whether you are on foot or behind the wheel of your car.

Recognizing Pre-Incident Indicators

However, in order to identify a potential threat when you see one, you need to develop attack-recognition skill: the basic aptitude of understanding the subtle pre-incident indicators that flag an imminent or evolving attack. The following are common pre-incident indicators. If you spot two – the situation requires your attention. If you spot three or more – then you are probably in an immediate threat situation that requires you to take action.

  1. No Cover for Action, No Cover for Status: anyone who doesn’t appear to have a reason for being where they are and doing what they appear to be doing. They don’t fit the baseline of what belongs in the environment, and their presence is “off”. This is the person loitering near you in a parking lot with no car keys in their hands. They’re just standing there and looking around with their head on a swivel while touching their waistline.
  2. Sudden Change in Someone’s Status: the person loitering near you in the parking lot closes in on you as soon as your hands are occupied by opening your car door. Nothing else has changed. Be wary if your presence suddenly causes any person’s status to suddenly change.
  3. Correlation of Movement: the person is following closely behind you, and takes every turn you do. They cross the street with you. If you stop and suddenly turn around – they slow down or stutter step, and then hold off while maintaining their distance.
  4. Hidden Hands Causing Unnatural Movement: people swing both their hands naturally when walking normally. When someone hides their hands behind their leg, in their armpit, or under their arm – it will affect the way they move and make their movements appear unnatural. Hidden hands is a potential indicator of a hidden weapon.

This is not an exhaustive list of indicators. Predatory glancing and predatory movement (like flanking you or boxing you in) are also potential threat-indicators. What is important is that if your gut feeling tells you someone or something is wrong – you better learn to listen to it.

Early Threat Recognition Saves Lives

It’s obviously desirable to identify a potential threat early, while they are still some distance away, as opposed to only noticing it when it is in your personal space with a knife against your throat. This is one of the reasons why we talk about scanning 360-degrees out to 10 meters.

It’s a reasonable distance that most situations allow, but it is also provides a slight buffer. A relatively fit person (or criminal) can cross a distance of 7 meters (21 feet) in a mere 1,5 to 2 seconds. If you are caught unaware and unprepared, that’s only about enough time to say “Oh shit!” and do very little else.

Susan Jane Golding from New York City, United States, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Which is why Mr. Lovette refers to situational awareness as “tak(ing) the element of surprise away from the threat”. Which is advantageous for numerous reasons.

  • Removing the element of surprise from the threat means that you will be less affected by the physiological and psychological effects of a startle response in the event of an attack. And you will be able to manage it far better. Which in turn enhances your ability to effectively respond.
  • By identifying a threat earlier, you can plan your response and have time to choose an effective response measure. Most obviously, this may give you the opportunity to remove yourself from the situation and avoid the incident altogether. Which is the best win you can possibly ask for. Equally, if avoidance isn’t an option, you can choose a method with which to evade your assailant. If neither of those are on the table, then you can choose a method with which to counter, decide if a pre-emptive action against the impending aggressor is possible, and pick the right tools for the job.
  • Seeing the threat early gives you a moment to psychologically switch on maximum aggression and get ready to fight. Maybe you are lucky and this observable change in posture and focus is enough to give your potential attacker significant second thoughts. But even if it doesn’t, you are still primed and ready to cook-off. Which places you in an incomparably better situation than someone who is simply taken by surprise and completely on the back foot.

What should stick with you from the above, is that time equals choices. And unless you are subjecting yourself to paralysis-by-analysis, choices are a good thing. But don’t expect your assailants to give you time – they’re probably more interested in stealing your watch anyway. You will have to earn the time by being situationally aware.

Take Ownership of Your Situational Awareness

Now, when it comes to dealing with potential violent aggressors, your priority pertaining threats should always be as follows:

  • Avoid them at all costs. Avoidance is the key element to completing your mission of always going home to your loved ones in one piece.
  • If you cannot avoid, then evade your attacker(s). The New Balance Defence works. It’s better to win your fights by 100 meters than to take a blade to the aorta. You don’t want an epitaph saying “Here lies Mike. He could run, but sure sucked at fighting.”
  • If you cannot evade, then counter explosively and with maximum aggression. Which is why you should be physically fit and know how to fight. Or at the very least be proficient with your defensive tools and train with them regularly. Because you are now fighting for your life.

So, what can you do now? Apart from getting copies of Kelly and Ed’s books, here are some basic things you can start practicing right now to enhance your situational awareness:

  • Whenever you leave a secure location (like your home), consciously do a mindset shift and switch your awareness on.
  • Constantly scan your 10/360 when you are out and about.
  • Practice verbalising what you see to yourself to help you get into the habit of not only seeing, but actively observing and registering.
  • Leave the smartphone alone until you get to a secure location. Your car is not a secure location.
  • If you have to check your phone, position yourself with your back against a wall and lift the phone to your eyes so that you keep your head up. But keep this brief.
  • Always leave enough space behind the vehicle in front of you so you can get past them and escape. A good rule of thumb is that if you can see their tyres contacting the tar, you have enough room.
  • Never assume a situation is OK: if you see something / someone that sets your alarm bells off – avoid them! Turn around, change course, or otherwise remove yourself from the potential situation.
  • Use reflective surfaces in the environment to help you scan what’s behind you, as well as what is around corners ahead of you.

As you can see, none of this is rocket science. It is all very straightforward, simple, and sensible. Which is probably why so few people actually practice it. With this borne in mind, go out there and unsuck yourself from your phone and plug yourself into your environment. Observe your environment and the people in it with intent. Every threat avoided is a fight won. And above all, be an active and enthusiastic participant in your own rescue.

 

Gideon Joubert is the owner and editor of Paratus. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from the University of South Africa, is a qualified firearms instructor, and does the odd security industry gig once in a while.

This article originally appeared at Paratus and is reprinted here with permission. 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

61 COMMENTS

  1. I.put my head on a swiveling, I got a stiff neck and couldn’t swivel no more. I went to the chiropractor and he said, “Your not a fcking hoot owl.”
    Speaking of
    The other night I was sitting on the porch watching the cats, all of a sudden they come high tailing it by me and ran in the house. A couple seconds later I seen a shadow then traced it to the light pole down the road. Sitting on top the light pole was a Barred Owl.
    Situational Awareness.
    Like I told that dumb shit Miner49er, snakes do talk to us , yah just gotta know how to listen.
    Deer will stop and try to pinpoint you with the sniffer, a coyote just does a 180.
    Situational Awareness

      • 1989. I moved to my dad’s shack in the woods, I had a cat and she had kittens. The kittens was getting wiped out I figured it was an owl. One afternoon moma cat kept bugging me, I followed her through the timber and she stopped at a sycamore tree, up in that tree was a Barn Owl and two fledglings, Crossman 760.
        How that cat knew where that owl was is pretty amazing.
        1999, lived in the woods, squawk squawk, a mocking bird raising hell, figured it was a snake, sure nuff. Blasted the snake with a shotgunm, the bird took off but watched the snake hit the ground. The mocking bird led me to three other black snakes in the pecan trees.
        Unbelievable but true, the weird thing is when me and the mockingbird made eye contact it was like Vulcan mind meld.

        • “Unbelievable but true, the weird thing is when me and the mockingbird made eye contact it was like Vulcan mind meld.”

          Oh, I do believe it, it was an instant understanding.

          Critters ain’t dumb, the dumb ones have been eaten… 🙂

        • Can’t believe a creature such as yourself would kill black snakes. I live in peace with all snakes, unless they are poisonous. That could change if my chickens began disappearing, but the more non-poisonous snakes the better. They’re eating all the stuff that would lure a water moccasin or a rattler into the yard. Besides, I like watching the racers moving through the undergrowth – they’re FAST, and they don’t stay on the ground. Amazing, sometimes.

        • @Paul.
          Yeah I know, but watching snakes eat baby birds or rob the nest while the birds doingevertyhing they can to no avail kinda sux too.
          I took a snake once a mile away, 3 days later it was back.

        • we had friends near richmond that had a cat named mitzy whose head was bald from mockingbird dive bomb attacks.

  2. Criminals are always armed. At a minimum they have two good ones. And if you are a female. A weak person from age or illness. You should be able to shoot any unarmed criminal.

    A naked criminal is extremely dangerous. Plenty of Cops and civilians have been seriously injured and killed by completely naked criminals.

      • “I eat butter beans and packs of BB’s.”

        There’s nothing ‘butter’ about nasty, bitter, lima beans.

        Feel free to fart freely… 🙂

        • Quality lima beans ain’t bitter. Something wrong your taste buddies? Or mauve your groove? Er, or maybe your grocer?

        • “Something wrong your taste buddies? Or mauve your groove? Er, or maybe your grocer?”

          True story –

          Growing up, all my friends hated the school lunches, I liked them just fine.

          It wasn’t until later I realized what that really said about my own mom’s cooking… 🙂

        • Ouch! My NYC mom was a great cook, including panfish and game birds, although she drew the line at small mammals.

          That was in the days when a lot of folks kept a possum cage in the back yard, and squirrel was a treat.

  3. If you are dumb enough to get raped or murdered because you had your head in your mobile phone then you deserved it. I know. I know. Victim blaming. But really? The world is full of stupid people and maybe the predators can thin the herd of the useless eaters.

  4. I will have the element of surprise when they meet my accomplices Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson. Never leave home without them.

    • From the article:

      “…good luck maintaining 10/360 while stuck in an elevator!”

      Oh, but I disagree. I always stand in the rear corner of an elevator, where I have the ability to keep eyes on the entire space and everyone within.

      • You might be entertained by the reactions if you get in a somewhat crowded elevator, don’t/can’t move to that back corner, and stand facing the other passengers instead of the door.

  5. By identifying a threat earlier,

    IF you wait until you’ve “identified” a threat you are already behind the game… I treat everything and everyone as a threat and I never take out my cell phone in a public area… I do not walk around staring at the ground, give me a hard look and get one right back, looking for fear? This is the wrong guy, I give plenty of warning with my demeanor, play stupid games you WILL win a stupid prize… OBTW: day 9 with new WuFlu strain, a little tougher than the last one, misery level is a bit higher but manageable…

    • I just got it myself 2 weeks ago, nose poured snot for a week, over it now… 🙂

      • Dr said I’m over half way there gave me Z-pac for peripheral crap, riding out the rest, be 74 in three weeks don’t want to miss that…First couple of days was high fever, chills, after that broke more like a bad cold, just feel like shit but getting better…

        • Your comment is awaiting moderation
          We always keep a ready supply of iv er mec tin on hand, and hydro
          xychlor oquine. Haven’t had to use it, yet. Both of us have had the WuFlu but didn’t know it.

    • it’s a bit unnerving to be walking around in normally packed city streets only to find yourself alone with a couple of guys walking slightly behind you across the street and verbally sizing you up as happened to me once…turning and glancing at them seemed to be enough…this time…I was in a place where I couldn’t be armed…[London]….but you’re never really completely safe anywhere…

  6. The only gun fight one wins is the one which one avoids. Going to get the article referenced books. Also, check out the following sources:

    “Left of Bang” by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley, the Combat Profiling leg of the three-legged stool of the Marine Combat Hunter Program. Combat Profiling is the method of proactively identifying threats based on human behavior and clues from your surrounding….situational awareness, critical thinking, decision making.
    “The Gift of Fear – Survivals Signals That Protect Us From Violence” by Gavin De Beckerhe A
    “When Violence is the Answer – Learning How to do what it takes when your life is at stake” by Tim Larkin.
    “Spotting Danger Before It Spots You – Build Situational Awareness to Stay Safe” by Gary Quesenberry, Federal Air Marshall.
    And, a bonus that is the most important situational awareness of all…
    “One Heartbeat Away – Your Journey Into Eternity” by Mark Cahill
    DO NOT MISS THE LAST BOOK.
    Reading all the books will not help unless you work at developing the content as your daily operational mode. It is a developed, practiced skill.

  7. Several combat tours, lived in cities like Chicago, and Minneapolis. Spent some time in various major cities in both Europe and Asia. Open your eyes. Listen. Notice what is out of place. Notice the predator. and, if needs be, become the more vicious predator.
    I see so many people with their faces and attention stuck to their cell phones. heedless of whats around them.

  9. My habit is eye contact. Anyone can be a threat, with eye contact you gauge thier intent and if they are up to no good they know you are aware.

    Gas stations near airports are the worst. I lock the car while at the pump and observe.

  10. Friday I drove 35 miles to a friend’s range and riding shotgun was an AR-308 tack driver, AR-15 Carbine and a 32 H&R. My situational awareness was enhanced.

    • Are you gonna come and shoot me in church? Over half the congregation carries… 🙂

  11. At a gas station to pick up coffee for a long late night drive after leaving Dulles International, two “friends” pull up one jumps out of the passenger side and knocks on my window, I already had the rental in reverse gave a wave and didn’t wait one second to leave.

  12. The average citizen lives in a 1 meter box. Head down eyes, ears and mind, transfixed to that little rectangle box. That they can’t live without. Unless something directly interferes with that box, they are just walking blindly through life. Just biding their time until they become the next victim and their very own SHTF moment.

    • Oh man I’ve lived in Cook county ILL for 40 years. Seen everything. 6 years in Chiraq. Been attacked on the EL. I won & unarmed too. Never open your car window to anyone but a cop with a gun. Let everybody think you’re a friendly old guy but be capable of great violence. Be a badazz grey man. Never ever walk looking at a phone. Avoid Wal-mart after dark. Avoid Chicago. Learn to communicate with every nationality & persuasion. Know where the he!! your kids are!!! Stupid folks doing stupid crap is rampant(5 people drowned in Lake Michigan last week being idiots). Rant over🙄

  13. Ya know, when I see something like this posted I point it out to others I know especially people new to guns. Just about every thing ‘training’ or ‘instructional’ for firearms and DGU is on the internet in some form – from hands on to the legal to practical, enough to get a person thinking and aware and practicing by their self or with another or maybe prompting for in-person attendance at a training course if that’s what they want to do. Even the various videos of, and people relating their, DGU incidents can be instructional in some way to people.

    One of the dumbest questions I ever heard an anti-gun person ask was “How do you know they are a threat, what gives you the right to make that decision?”

  14. I do not know how you lot feel abouit living in such a DANGEROUS Society that you feel the nessessity to shoot somebody that even looks at you X-eyed’ Or is that Americans PATHOLOGICALLY are frightened of their own shadows. I find it rather pathetic that there is all mthe b hoo-hah and bullshit about CARRYING HANDGUNS when they are MORE LIKELY to get YOU shot than you are ever going to shoot somebody in SELF DEFENCE That why the POLICE,for instance, go into a situation IN-HAND. I also find it even more pathetic than in spite of the WEEPING and A’WAILING at yet anoth SCHOOL or MASS SHOOTING nobody does a thing about it except go ,out and BUY even MORE basically meaningless Firearms that they are never going to use anyway.
    Do Americans never wondwer why we in the UK or Europe [even in those countries that have quite lax gun controls like the CZECH Republic do not go about our daily lives in fear or feel we have to have BY LEGISLATION Armed Guards in Primary Schools right up to Universities.

    Canada, which in most ways shares a parallel history, with the USA has never had a Gun Culture where a ‘MAN is NOT A MAN ‘ unless he’s carrying a bloody gun’
    Just one salient fact here [and I have no reason to believe that bthe UK mis anything but ‘LOW’ average here]
    The average number of ILLEGAL <DEATHS inthe UK runs at around 700/900 per annum. To simplify the maths lets say 1000 out of a population of about 70 million. That includes death by Gun Crime. death by knife crime, death by Domestic violence [by far the most common, manslaughter, infanticide, and Acts of Terrorism. Taking the USA to ,have around mX7 the population of mthe UK [though in nfact it less!] that interpolates to around 5,000 ILLEGAL deaths in the UUSA from all causes. Instead of which there are in America 22.000 and counting Deaths from GUN CRIME alone . No bloody wonder you are shit frightened

    • wow Albert, so much ignorant and lie in what you wrote it, judging from the way you wrote it, even confuses you.

    • Hey Albert

      English style gun control won’t turn the US into England. Not that anyone with ambition would want that.

      English style gun control is fait acompli in Mexico, NYC, Jamaica, Haiti and many other miserable high death places.

      Ya know what English style gun control breeds? Lynch law and inevitably corrupt totalitarian government. At least ordinary Americans have a chance to determine fate. Not to mention maintain some deterrence.

      Now run down to your local dog park and find something to roll in.

    • once again…you’re never really safe anywhere…including the UK…remember a couple of wild-eyed muslim-types mouthing shit approaching me and my family up at speaker’s corner as people backed away…thankfully a couple of Bobbies emerged quickly, cut between us and defused the situation as they walked away muttering some gobblygook…those guys are really good!…always johnny-on-the- spot….

  15. People that don’t have firearms and think they don’t need them or they are opposed to them buy/get/have all sorts of insurance – home/renters, car, life, fire, ‘natural disaster’ in some cases, health, accident, home-warranty types to fix things when they need it, even ‘financial insurance’ in the form of investments or savings … all sorts of ‘insurances’.

    But when you ask them “What insurance do you have that keeps a criminal person from deciding they want to kill or injure you when they are right there in front of you trying to do that very thing?” – the usual answer is “I’ll call 911.” or “I’ll call the police.” or “I’ll run away.” or sometimes “I’ll use pepper spray.”, or even “I’m going to fight back.”

    A. It takes only one stab with a knife to kill you. It takes less than 10 seconds for an attacker using multiple stabs to kill or seriously injure you. (Knives are used 62% more by criminals than any other weapon).

    B. It takes one good hit with a blunt object to kill you. It takes less than 10 seconds for an attacker using multiple hits to kill or seriously injure you. (collectively for all crime attacks, blunt objects/hand-feet/sharpened-knife weapons are used over 89% more than a firearm)

    C. The majority of attacks from criminal people today upon a single victim are conducted by multiple criminal people.

    D. 99.9% of all people physically-injured/killed in a mass shooting in the last 50 years (which includes school shootings) were completely defenseless when that moment came.

    E. In the last 50 years, collectively all such events following; 98% of all people subjected to a mass shooting (which includes school shooting) or ‘spree shooter’ or ‘active shooter’ event (if you prefer these terms, or they apply), and directly targeted or could be directly targeted by the shooter, where an ordinary law abiding armed citizen was present and allowed to be armed (legally) and engaged the ‘shooter’ by DGU (including brandishing), survived the event unharmed and the shooter was stopped from continuing (either shot or ran away or committed suicide when faced with defensive opposition) – and absent that ordinary law abiding armed citizen DGU less than 18% survived the event by waiting for police to arrive and stop the shooter.

    E. For all violent crime, over 70% of people employing pepper spray or stun guns to defend against an attacker are still seriously ‘life threatening’ inured (some killed outright there on scene). Over 80% of women using employing pepper spray or stun guns to defend against a rapist are still raped (some killed during or after).

    F. For all violent crime, less than 7% of victims who attempt to flee a criminal attack are successful.

    G. For all violent crime, less than 5% of people who choose to fight back in a hand-to-hand manner to defend against a criminal attack are successful.

    H. For all violent crime, a person is targeted as a potential victim at least three times for every 6 hours they spend in public area/view.

    Ya got insurance for all this? Are the police there to protect you in that few seconds you may have to live?

    For all violent crime incidents, overall, over 96% of victims who employ firearms DGU survive the event with no injury. Less than 12% survive the event with no injury by calling 911 or waiting for police to arrive.

    You are your own ‘first responder’, a firearm is your best insurance for that time when its needed.

    • Even if you carry a gun they’re still going to get you if you’re looking at your phone or lost somewhere in your music with your headphones on. You have to pay attention to your surroundings.

    • I think a lot of the failures with sprays and electrical devices are due to the reason they are carrying those items: they couldn’t ever shoot anyone. This translates to they really couldn’t hurt the person without some egregious violation – and they’re too stunned by the violating they’re about to get to get over that hump. This is trained passivity.

      When you’re late to deploy your defense, and unwilling to really mean it when you do, then, yeah, sure, “They’re just going to take it away from you and hurt you with it.”

  16. I had some time to kill one sunny, Summer afternoon, so I just sat in my (locked) car watching people come out of a grocery store. It was amazing how unaware people were. Zero situational awareness. Is there something beyond “Condition White”, because these people were there. Most had their noses in their phones. I see it in the grocery stores, as well. Women have their purses un-attended, wide open for the taking, while they are on their phone, or are half way down the aisle. Men or women, there are times when you look at them, and think, “someone could put a bag over your head, and stuff you in a van, and you would never know what hit you”. It really is quite sad.

  17. If you are attacked don’t be afraid to gouge an eye or stick your fingers in a guys cheek and rip his mouth. A hard palm to the nose or ear will stop the biggest guys. A kick in the shin if you have hard soles shoes will slow them down long enough to give you a head start. Men expect you to go for their nuts. Go for the eyes or punch them in the throat instead. An elbow to the solar plexus will paralyze the biggest guy’s breathing long enough to get away. There is no such thing as a fair fight. If you see a struggle can’t be avoided make sure you hurt the bad guy as much as you can then run like hell.

    • This is true, even if you have a gun. You might need to create time/space to get your weapon into combat. And use the combat retention position when drawing.

      The biggest problem – and this is true of even cops with guns* – is a lack of desire to hurt someone, a lack of a real combat mentality. Once someone engages to possibly hurt you it’s you or them. Being willing to hurt them and hurt them badly. Cut their heart out with a spoon**. Drive your fist through them, not into them. Etc.

      (* Saw a video of a cop encountering a man with a gun and trying to get him to put it down so he can be nicely arrested. Cop has his gun drawn and a bead on the bad guy. Bad guy is sitting down on the ground with gun un hand. Bad guy suddenly rises and starts toward the cop – who backs away shouting “Stop, stop, stop” before finally shooting him after a good 20+ feet of movement.)
      (** Because it’s dull! It’ll hurt more you twit! Name that movie.)

Comments are closed.