We have often discussed the importance of situational awareness and its role in keeping yourself safe. This pertains not only to personal security but to general personal safety as well. The massive use of different handled devices has had a demonstrative effect on the situational awareness of most of the public. The other day while…
While we generally tend to focus on the less physical aspects of personal security and self-protection or the “soft skills” it’s important at times to comment on some aspects of the hard skills, especially when it comes to the need for realistic and functional training. For those people who choose to pursue some type of…
At about 9pm on April 11, 2013 a group of 5 men forced their way into an apartment in Meriden, Connecticut in the Northeastern US and overpowered and restrained four people inside. The apartment was reportedly company-rented and used by employees of Lenox Jewelers in Fairfield who frequently transited between that store and another store…
Amorphous: Without a clearly defined shape or form; vague; indeterminate or unclassifiable When contemplating personal security situations we often envision the threat – whatever it may be – to be clear and direct. Sometimes it is but often that is not the case. Many crimes are direct and overt. A blitz attack, a knife or…
If you do business in an international environment then chances are you deal with a wide range of people with different ideas about acceptable business practices, business ethics, conflict resolution and competition. While some of these people may hold views very similar to yours many others may have a different perspective. Generally speaking the further…
Continuing with the theme of keeping travel security in perspective that we introduced in the last article I’d like to stress again the need to keep a realistic and practical view of your personal security when traveling overseas and to avoid alarmist perceptions that often follow incidents like the Sarai Sierra case and the sexual…
The dramatic disappearance and murder of US solo tourist Sarai Sierra in Istanbul and the recent gang rape of a Swiss female tourist in India have brought attention to the darker side of travel. In the wake of these incidents, in particular the Sarai Sierra case there were numerous ill-informed comments by columnists and bloggers…
This is excerpted from the Integrated Protective Concepts book Kidnapping Prevention & Avoidance. Without a doubt the greatest threat you are likely to potentially encounter is the insider threat. Numerous kidnapping cases throughout the world have involved a person close to the victim or with inside knowledge of the victim’s activities and routine facilitating the…
Looks can be deceiving and more than one person has fallen victim to becoming complacent because a person they were dealing with turned out to be more dangerous than they initially appeared. A great example of this is the “Gang of Blondes” (Gangue das Loiras) a female kidnapping ring that was believed to be responsible…
One of the best ways to develop new countermeasures and enhance your personal or your organization’s security is by studying security incidents that have occurred to learn both from the mistakes of others and also from what they did well. Rightly or wrongly there is often a tendency to focus on the mistakes and things…