We are often advised by police, self-defense instructors, and others, that we should be more situationally aware i.e. that we should check our environment, for suspicious behaviors, and things that look out of place etc. Whilst this is good advice, it doesn’t help us much, unless we know what we are actually looking for – how we actually become more situationally aware. This is one of the reasons that I have little use for personal safety “tips” e.g. when jogging, don’t run with your headphones/earbuds in. Unfortunately, following this advice doesn’t by default make you safer, because if you don’t know what a threat or danger looks like, you won’t be able to identify it, whether you are listening to music or not. One piece of advice that is often given as a good example of situational awareness, is to be suspicious of the person wearing a winter coat on a hot day; yes, they could be a suicide bomber, or an active shooter, using the large coat to conceal explosives, and/or weapons, or they could be the homeless person who uses it to store and transport their possessions etc. The important factor is not the coat, but the context. The better way to become more situationally aware, is to throw out the “rules”, and begin to understand other people’s movement - specifically how it relates to ours, within the context of our situation.

For somebody to assault you, they must first synchronize their movement to yours. Whilst it may be difficult to ascertain whether somebody is watching/surveying you, assessing whether you are victim material or not, it is much easier to identify when somebody’s movement, is a response to yours e.g. somebody starts to follow you, etc. There are four basic types of synchronization of movement, which can be remembered by the acronym WAIT. These are:Waiting

1. Waiting

2. Approaching

3. Intercepting

4. Tracking

If somebody knows where you are going to be, within a certain time window, they will be able to wait for you there. On Friday, a game called “Pokemon Go”, was released. The premise of the game, that runs as an app on your smartphone, is that there are Pokemon characters, virtually located at certain geographic points. You view the landscape, through the phone’s camera, and when you get close to one of the characters, the phone alerts you to their presence. When you are close enough, the character appears on the screen, as if existing in your physical environment, and you can interact with them. Obviously, the game is intended for children, rather than adults, however it can make adult predators, aware of locations that children who play the game will be heading to – they will also be aware, that a child who realizes they are close to a Pokemon character, will not be thinking about their personal safety, or anything their parents have told them, once they have them on their screen (it’s also a “talking point” that an adult predator can use to start a conversation with the child). A parent may think that their child is safe when playing this game in an enclosed park or similar, where they can be seen, however child abductions can happen in seconds, and if a predator knows where a child will be, they can take steps to plan a successful getaway from that point. This is not to say that children shouldn’t play/be given the game, rather that parents and guardians should be aware of how a predatory individual could use the game to synchronize their movement to a child, and how they can supervise their child’s play to make sure it’s safe.

If somebody directly approaches you, it is pretty easy to identify their movement in relation to yours. However, if they use the cover of a crowd, it may be much more difficult to identify e.g. they weave through the crowd, moving towards you, keeping you in their sights, as you make your way through the crowd moving towards them – imagine a subway system where you are walking to one platform, and your potential assailant is moving the other way, towards the direction from which you have just come. This is a common method that many muggers use to commit their crimes. Most people in a crowd, naturally/unconsciously lower their situational awareness, because they believe that they are “safe” when others have eyes on them, whilst at the same time relying on others to identify potential dangers on their behalf – this is why it is important to actively “switch on” when we are in crowded places, as by default, we will start to switch off.

Interception is one of the most common forms of synchronization of movement, with a predator either cutting across our path, moving with us at an oblique angle, or getting to a certain place as we do, etc. We should be aware as to when our environment, lends itself to interception. “Funnels” are places in our environment, where we are directed towards a particular location. A good example of this, would be in a subway station, where there is a large open area, with ticket gates, that lead to an escalator; both the gates and the escalator, act as a funnel, concentrating people through a confined exit, and restricting their movement, etc. These locations are prime real estate for pick pockets, who can intercept individuals, moving in behind them to gain access to a purse or open pocket. The funneling effect that the escalators create, give these criminals the time to intercept a target, and potentially hidden by a crowd, the ability to commit their crimes with little chance of detection – any movement their victim detects can easily be explained away by the jostling of the crowd.

Tracking is the fourth type of synchronization. We are normally alerted to the fact that somebody is behind us by our fear system adrenalizing us, when it picks up on the footsteps/movement behind us. One way to check whether this is true synchronization, or just somebody who has fallen into step with us, is to alter and change our speed and direction. If the person behind us mirrors this, then we can be fairly confident that they have tied their movement to ours, and we should prepare to deal with the possible danger.

Recognizing people’s movements, and how they relate to ours is crucial if we are to have effective situational awareness. If somebody wants to cause you physical harm, they must make contact with you, and this means moving towards you in some way. If we are able to recognize such movement, we may be able to move away and disengage, or if this isn’t possible, at least give ourselves the chance to prepare for dealing with a physical assault.