Tony's Situational Awareness Newsletter (Edition #7)

Street Furniture

Many of you will have seen lots of different kinds of street furniture being added to high streets near your home or work.

Street furniture that provides significant levels of protection in the case of vehicle based attacks and preventing the run through of pedestrians that happened in places like Barcelona and the German Christmas markets is now a common sight.

Not all are as obvious as those in the middle of the London bridges. Some may just be plant pots, lighting and seating. Many of these are designed to rigorous standards and depending on the product can withstand significant levels of impact.

Next time you are out be aware of these and make note as they could provide you high levels of protection in the case of a terrorist incident.

I was recently in Southend and although these could have been very obvious ugly blocks the council had made an effort to provide a little character.

Why are you always talking about hotel doors?

Well that's a very good question.

Hotel doors work as a great way to demonstrate some of the issues with security, personal safety and are a good demonstration of the lack of training that most business travellers have.

The feedback I get from a simple photo of a hotel door and the safety implications is amazing. Often I will get 10 or more messages, plus a few comments on LinkedIn. Mostly from people who travel on behalf of their work and have either been concerned after an incident or had never previously thought of some of the principles discussed.

What do you think?

A time for training

I was fortunate to be able to spend a week training near Naples, Florida with my good friend and amazing firearms trainer Neil Davis of Go Noisy.

Updating and developing skills is, I believe, an important element of being able to provide effective training to others, its why I am with the Security Institute and continue to train whenever I can to help understand further the huge topic of security and awareness.

I will just hit them with this

Weapons be they improvised or pre-prepared are what some call force multipliers. They take the force you can generate and multiply it up into something much more effective.

Now for a start depending on what country you are from there may be a legal issue. In the UK that will almost certainly apply. 'Going equipped' is a term specific to theft legislation but you will not want to hear it when facing the consequences of defending yourself and surviving. The Offensive Weapons Act, 2019, has a wide range of opportunities to see you prosecuted for carrying something deemed to be a weapon.

When holding workshops I have been surprised by the weapons people carry. Don't think that would not apply to your office or workplace. I have seen it all from a 'stungun' through to screwdrivers.

However most people carry a weapon through fear and would have no intention of using it. That is unlike your assailant who goes out every day armed with the intent to cause fear and with no inhibitions of using a weapon to get what they want be that theft, assault or rape.

My advice is always to use situational awareness and de-escalation techniques wherever possible but every now and then escape is not possible.

Do you even train

As someone who talks a lot about situational awareness and techniques to avoid conflict I often get comments from well meaning people like "what do you know", Do you even train. Well yes I'm 50 years in and been coaching for 25. I continue to teach a range of sport and non sport based martial arts at the full time academy I own. From boxing, MMA and MuayThai to Kali and KungFu.

Drilling is a huge part of that, 1000s of repetitions build up instinctive reactions and muscle memory.

This is not something I would teach in a self defence workshop but is something I may teach for someone learning advanced drills to develop skills to deal with bladed attacks. What most see is the endless flow deeming it pointless missing the fact that the principle is not the endless flow but a defence and end at each stage.

Are You Concerned About the Safety or Personal Security of your people ?

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