The presenter made an interesting point that I think is relevant to personal security and self defense. He showed an image of a house and talked about the three necessary components to preventing loss or mitigating risks for burglaries. The first component is prevention, this includes door locks, fences, and anything designed to keep a burglar out. The next component is detection and includes things like alarms which are designed to make us aware when a breach of our preventative measures has occurred. The final component is response and includes things like alarm monitoring that calls the police and owning a gun or a dog. Response is the ability to react when a breach has occurred and has been detected.

The presenter next asked which of the three components was most important. Most of us (including me) answered that prevention was most important. In surveys this is the consensus of 95% of people asked. The reality is that, according to insurance statistics, for mitigating loss to burglary – detection and response are far more important than prevention. While having good door locks and other preventative measures is  important, once they are bypassed – without detection and response a burglar is free to steal with impunity.

How can we relate this to self defense and personal protection?

1. Prevention: This is anything you do to keep yourself from being a target of criminals. This may include avoiding dangerous situations, locking your car and house doors, not flashing valuables or cash in public – etc. The issue is, that there is no such thing as 100% fail-proof prevention. You can do everything right, and even go overboard with security precautions and still become the target of crime.
2. Detection: Detection boils down to awareness. Clearly most people will be aware of an attack after it happens, but understanding pre-violence indicators and having situational and environmental awareness are keys to surviving violence. I sometimes tell students that I cannot teach them how to defend against a sniper rifle. If the attack isn’t perceived, there will be no response.
3. Response: What do you do when you detect a threat, or when attacked? This is where tools and training come in.

The truth of the matter is that all three layers of defense are incredibly important. Insurance companies are not going to tell you to forget about door locks and just get an alarm and a gun. Many schools of self defense focus solely on response, and this is fine. However, without awareness, response will be too late and infective.

Whether it’s a computer system, a high tech installation, or your home – the weakest link in any security system is the people.

You can own steel doors with super-secure deadbolts, but if you fail to lock them they are useless. You can have a firewall and antivirus software installed on your computer, but if you open that email attachment from uncle Fred, you can infect your system. Companies can install intrusion detection and prevention systems on their network, but allow their employees to walk out the door with a hard drive full of valuable secrets.

The things that make us more or less safe boil down to the decisions we make daily.

Security is always a trade-off. I know I could stay relatively secure if I moved into the woods and locked myself in a panic-room wearing a bulletproof vest. However, the trade-off in lifestyle is not one I’m willing to make. There is no system that is 100% safe. Looking at security measures and their trade-offs is a good way to analyze and figure ways to become safer from crime.

Having lived in the city for 20 years, locking my doors is second nature. It isn’t really an inconvenience or extra expense. Having an alarm is a minor expense and a slight inconvenience, but saves a little on homeowners insurance and gives me some peace of mind. Everything else I do, which is undisclosed for security purposes, is a result of choices of trade-offs I have made. Only you can decide which tradeoffs you’re willing to make.

As an example,  jogging alone at dusk through a sparsely populated park with lots of blind spots while wearing headphones is one way that people in major cities like to get mugged. Seriously -  this is an activity that that encourages a lot of crime. So what are some trade-offs that could make jogging safer? Jogging with a friend may not be convenient, but may be the safest alternative. Choose a well-lit area with more people – not as nice an experience maybe, but safer. Don’t wear headphones while jogging – allow yourself the senses you were given to avoid danger.

Think about what you are willing to trade in order to be more safe. For some people it’s emotionally difficult to hold the idea that there are people who see them merely as objects to get what they want. You might have to give up some psychological comfort. Unfortunately, this is the criminal mindset. You do not have to go from blissfully ignorant to completely paranoid – there is a nice medium where you can live a happy but safer life.

I once read that the first thing a professional burglar does after breaking into a building is to look for escape routes. This would be pretty important should someone come in unexpectedly to foil their theft. Getting caught is the last thing a criminal wants.

Self defense is all about awareness and escape. Unlike the movies, self defense isn’t usually a toe to toe stand up fight. Your best bet to avoid getting hurt or into legal trouble is to escape danger.

To tune up your awareness, do the following drill throughout the day. Any time you enter a building or a room, make a quick mental note of the exits (windows, doors etc). Do this as fast as you can. Even if you have been somewhere numerous times, like in your home, still do it. Note if there are obstructions that would have to be cleared to use an escape.

This is a simple exercise which will begin to train your survival awareness.

Here’s a second drill for the car:

When stopped at a red light, always leave enough room between your car and the car in front that you could pull out in an emergency (even if pulling out puts you into oncoming traffic). Do not stop inches away from the bumper in front of you.

Think about what you would do if an armed attacker rushed your car, and tried to gain access. If you have kids or friends in the car, how does that change what you might do?

Both of these drills can be done in seconds, yet they start to build your situational and environmental awareness and make you a safer person.