Last week’s blog article, looked at situational awareness, and the use of the environment both to assist you, as well as creating problems for you etc. In this week’s article I want to take a look at “scanning”, and how this can be used to create a 360 degree understanding of your environment, and those who are in it.

Most people see scanning as something that they are actively engaged in e.g. they are looking for people, acting and behaving in a certain way, that may have harmful intent towards them – such as people who are walking aggressively towards them, people who are holding eye contact with them etc. and whilst there are times to actively scan, it shouldn’t be all the time, as this would be extremely exhausting. This means we must develop the skill of passive scanning. Passive scanning is something that “prey” animals such as horses, gazelle and similar, rely on to identify potential danger. Take the example of a gazelle, which can graze in a relaxed manner, whilst being in close proximity to a sleeping lion. The gazelle, passively uses all of its senses to keep it safe; if it hears the lion move it will it will run away, if it sees the lion start to stir from its sleep it will move away. It is not however in a highly adrenalized state consciously analyzing the lion’s movement and behavior. As well as being unnecessary, as there are only a few certain/distinct movements that indicate a lion is waking up, it would also be an extremely stressful/time consuming activity to engage in.  

To be successful at passive scanning, you first need to develop an active curiosity about your surroundings. Without this curiosity, your conscious mind will not be drawn to those actions and behaviors which are out of place. Most of us have heard the story of the security professional who guesses that the man wearing the heavy coat on a hot day, must be concealing something, because why else would they be wearing a coat in such weather? The truth is, that the “reasoning” part of the threat identification process, comes after the identification of the threat itself. What first drew the security professional’s eye to the person in question was not the logic of why they’d be wearing a heavy coat in such weather, but that they were dressed differently to those around them; they were out of place, and this piqued their curiosity. After becoming curious, the logic of the coat in relation to the weather was applied, and the threat/danger identified. If you don’t have a sense of curiosity, your passive scan will see your eyes pass people and objects of interest, rather than being drawn to them, and asking the question why.

In an age of constant distractions, such as smartphones, and the need to think about so many things at once, it is easy to lose our curiosity about the environment, and those people around us – especially if our day-to-day life is relatively safe. If we aren’t curious about our surroundings and those in it, our eyes will never be drawn to the person who keeps adjusting their clothing, or who is looking furtively about, whilst avoiding eye-contact with others. Equally we won’t notice and question why someone is walking in the opposite direction to everyone else, or why they are waiting at a particular location. If we have a curiosity about our environment, our eyes will be drawn to these things, and we can start to process the reasons why, and apply knowledge, experience and logic to the situation e.g. we can understand that the only reason somebody would be wearing a heavy coat on a hot day would be to conceal something etc. To start developing the ability to passively scan, you must first actively scan on a regular basis, till it becomes a subconscious process.

When our eyes are drawn, we need to make a dynamic risk assessment of the situation; determining whether we are in a high risk situation, or one containing unknown risks. If you think/believe that a situation is “low” risk, you have obviously identified a potential threat, and classifying it this way will only lead to you underestimating it, and not treating it with the seriousness it requires. If you can’t identify the exact reason/danger that caused your eye to be drawn, you need to engage in active scanning, that is looking/searching for the things that you know indicate danger and harmful intent. You should also take notice of emotional feedback that your body is giving you, such as if you are adrenalized or not. If you are then the person constantly readjusting their clothing, may be giving off other signals that your fear system has identified as indicating a potential threat, and what might have been explained a way, as someone just wearing uncomfortable clothing, can now be discounted, and the more likely reason that they are about to draw a weapon can be adopted.

There are also times when you want to engage in active scanning. If you know that you are passing a particular location, which looks like the perfect ambush site, you should be attempting to get a 360 understanding of what is happening in your environment. This involves scanning the ground, as well as elevating your eye line e.g. a pile of cigarette butts in a particular location give you the knowledge that individuals or a particular individual spends time there, possibly looking for potential victims etc. Don’t restrict your active scanning to what is just at your eye-level. An open upstairs window during cold weather could contain a threat, however remote, such as an active shooter etc.

It is worth interspersing your periods of passive surveillance, with periods of active surveillance. Working this way, you will keep your mind in a state of curiosity, and are much more likely to “passively” identify threats and dangers if they happen to be in your environment. One of the biggest inhibitors to our ability to passively scan is our smartphones. If you have been reading this blog article on your phone, in a public place, five minutes has just gone by, when you were not aware or curious about your surroundings and environment. A gazelle, will have raised its head several times in this space of time, using intervals that would allow it to see the lion before it would be able to get to it.