Security concepts and applications

¶ … Personal Protection Plan

Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, personal protection and transportation security were primarily of concern only to high-profile individuals and public figures. The security environment changed significantly after 9/11 which highlighted the importance of emergency preparedness for ordinary individuals. Subsequently, natural disasters such as those precipitated by Hurricane Katrina illustrated the degree to which the greatest risks to the individual may be even less predictable than terrorist attacks. In some respects, contemporary concerns about personal safety and security relate to surviving the acute crisis of terrorist attacks and natural disasters. In other respects, personal safety and security relates more to advanced evacuation planning and preparation to cope with the longer term exigencies of the disruptions caused indirectly by large-scale disasters regardless of their cause.

Personal Security:

Personal security requires situational awareness above all else (Hoffman, 2003; Holt, 2007). Situational awareness means (1) avoiding the natural tendency to develop automatic routines devoid of attention to details and circumstances, and (2) loss of external orientation through the phenomenon of "tunnel vision" in which the individual focuses so intently on personal matters and concerns that they obscure effective monitoring of external events and circumstances (Holt, 2007). Even in the context of ordinary personal safety outside of the home rather than terrorist threats or natural disasters, lack of situational awareness is the single most important contributor to becoming the victim of crime, particularly in large metropolitan societies (Safir, 2003).

Other important aspects of personal security in public places include identifying primary and secondary (or emergency) exit routes in every location such as in malls, shopping centers, stores, restaurants, and stadiums. This is a fundamental life saver in both terrorist scenarios as well as in fires and other natural disasters where second lost during escape can make the difference between life and death (Holt, 2007; Larsen, 2007).

Transportation:

With respect to routine personal security concerns, transportation represents a significant vulnerability, mainly by virtue of the regularity with which most people ordinarily travel (Holt, 2007; Larsen, 2007). Generally, the average person leaves the home at precisely the same time every workday and they take the identical route to work, even making the same stops for coffee or to drop off children on the way with hardly any variation whatsoever from day-to-day. Whether the risk at issue involves pre-planned kidnapping, murder, robbery, bodily assault, car-jacking, or any other crime against the individual, the regularity and predictability of ordinary travel routines are the greatest source of vulnerability.

Unlike pre-planned terrorist attacks, many of the greatest threats to the personal safety and security of the ordinary person are crimes of opportunity in which perpetrators selected their victims mainly because of their apparent vulnerability (Safir, 2003). For this reason, security experts advise against taking the exact same route to work every day or from establishing other elements of their travel that are would permit would-be wrongdoers an opportunity to plan attacks in advance (Holt, 2007). Instead of taking the same route to work, individuals are advised to maintain multiple routes and to vary their choice in that respect to prevent becoming victims of criminals looking for victims (Holt, 2007; Larsen, 2007; Safir, 2003).

There are also tactical aspects of reducing susceptibility to crimes targeting the individual during ordinary automobile travel. Security experts advise drivers to always know their current location, which is not as obvious as often assumed; as a matter of fact, this is a skill purposely practiced by new police officers because minimization of the time involved in transmitting an accurate location where support is required can often make the difference between life and limb or between successful and unsuccessful attempts to apprehend criminals fleeing crime scenes (Safir, 2003). If asked, most drivers could not identify the approximate mile mark of their whereabouts on a highway or roadway without spending a few minutes to locate landmarks and mile marker signs. This is an important advantage in most conceivable emergencies, especially those requiring immediate assistance from emergency service personnel (Holt, 2007).

Likewise, situational awareness also means maintaining escape routes and avoiding circumstances where one's vehicle could be trapped in position, whether inadvertently by other drivers or purposely by potential criminals or terrorists (Holt, 2007; Larsen, 2007). At stop lights and signs, drivers should never pull up so close to the vehicle in front of them that they have no room to work with if a sudden emergency occurs requiring them to escape quickly.

As a general principle, drivers should always preserve their options as much as possible, which includes selecting lanes that permit spontaneous choices to make unplanned exits, choosing parking spots that cannot be easily blocked in, and always backing into parking lot spaces to enable rapid exit without reversing directions or performing three-point turns first (Holt, 2007). Safety in this area should also involve surveillance of parking facilities to identify available exits in advance and for the purpose of selecting well-lit parking spots and those in view of public areas instead of poorly lit areas in remote recesses of parking facilities (Holt, 2007).

Emergency Preparedness, Communications, and Evacuation Planning:

In the post-9/11 and post-Katrina environment, emergency preparedness means establishing advance plans for rendezvousing with family members and others in the vent that normal communications are disrupted by circumstances. The 9/11 experience illustrated how easily telephone service can become unreliable, whether directly from the physical consequences of terrorist attack or other disasters, or simply as the secondary effect of overwhelmed circuits (Larsen, 2007). Therefore, preserving communications requires advance planning of rendezvous points in the event of the need to relocate immediately and establishing remote contact points (such as relatives living in distant states) so that individual family members can reach one another by relay if necessary (Larsen, 2007).