Situational awareness is more than just a critical skill. It’s a habit and a way of life. It is very often the difference between life and death and most people are completely oblivious. Don’t become a victim.
One of the first things I was taught when I started working in security was the importance of situational awareness. Looking back, I’m flabbergasted that for most of my life, I was completely unaware of what was going on around me. The fact that it had to be pointed out to me by a security instructor back then is absurd, however I do think it’s the same with most people.
Let me use a specific example of how I believe most people become victims of crime in Gauteng by using my own mistake. After years of looking at weekly crime stats, I see this sort of thing happening time after time.
Many years ago, long before I had any security training, I was going to pick up my girlfriend at the time, who was renting a room at a house near Louis Botha avenue opposite Balfour park in Jo’burg. I did everything wrong by pulling in to the driveway and getting myself boxed in but that’s a whole other article by it’s-self. For the purposes of this post, I’ll discuss the situational awareness issues.
Firstly, Louis Botha Avenue is known for criminal activity, so that in it’s-self should have made me extra cautious. Secondly, I was completely unaware of what was going on around me. I sat in the car while my girlfriend got in and had a chat in the driveway. 2 guys walked past on my right hand side and 2 guys walked past on my left hand side. I should have taken immediate evasive action but instead, I simply assumed that they were coming to visit other tenants.
As part of my complete lack of responsibility at the time, I had my windows down for air. All of a sudden I found an arm snaking in through the window. Years of training in combat sports kicked in and I grabbed the arm and rolled up the window, hyper extending the arm. I heard a bang on the opposite window and saw another guy pointing a gun at me. At that point, I became completely compliant and let the robbery happen.
Thank goodness they never hurt us and the wallets, glasses, phones and keys could all be replaced. It just goes to show that in this case, my ability to fight was completely nullified by being outnumbered and out maneuvered by organised, armed and professional criminals.
All of this could have been avoided at various times by simply being situationally aware and taking appropriate steps.
The fact that I’m now trained and armed would not have made much of a difference if I had still had no situational awareness. It’s the awareness that allows one to take the appropriate steps in the first place.
The principal of situational awareness applies to everyone. It applies to Mom’s picking up kids from school and it applies to security personnel doing executive protection, access control or patrols. By being aware of what’s going on in both your immediate environment and the general state of affairs in the area, you can keep yourself and others safe. All the weapons and skills in the world will not save you or the people you’re protecting if you lack awareness.
Civilians can apply this all the time. When you’re pulling into your driveway, is there a strange car outside. Has someone been driving behind you from the shopping centre? Driveway crimes and follow home crimes happen all the time and are often avoidable.
Security personnel need to make situation awareness a priority at all times. The repetitive nature of security makes it easy to fall into routine and take your surroundings for granted. Whether you’re providing close protection for a client or working a shift at an event. Your situational awareness is very often what will keep you and your client alive. Is there a strange bag near the gate? Is there a car sitting in a wierd place? Is someone’s behavior different to everyone else? Have a group of people entered your area that don’t appear to fit in? These things unfortunately matter. Security officers need to take it a step further and watch the body language of people they are questioning. It only takes a second for a suspicious person to suddenly pull out a knife and stab you.
While there’s no need to be on high alert if the situation does not require it, there is always a need to maintain a basic level of awareness and one should avoid slipping into bad habits.
When it comes to awareness levels for security and military personnel, there is an excellent article on Spotter up here. The image above comes from their article and illustrates the point well, so head on over and check it out when you’re done here.