Daily Defense 1-4: The Importance of "Situational Awareness"

The first step in taking charge of your own personal safety is maintaining situational awareness. "Situational awareness" is simply paying attention to what's going on around you. It helps you identify a threat and leave the area or prepare to address it. Jeff explains a color code system for describing your level of situational awareness: White - paying no attention. Yellow - casual attention. Orange - paying attention to a "pre-incident" indicator. Finally, Red - ACTIVELY doing something in response to a threat. Develop a "tape loop" of responses to potential threats, which may be as simple as telling a sketchy stranger who approaches you on the street, "I'm sorry, I can't help you," and leaving the area. Jeff explains why it's important to pay attention to the positions of strangers' hands. Distractions are bad for your situational awareness, so yes - put that mobile phone away!