From our list of the Components of Situational Awareness (Observation, Perception, Description, Memory, Human Behavior and Deduction) we just have Deduction left to cover, before getting in to some useful practical exercises in the next article. Deduction a. You have been honing your Situation Awareness skills for some time, paying great attention ...

INTRODUCTION In Part 5 of this series, we'll address some of the specific requirements of defending a community against violent threats in an uncertain future. These caveats apply: We cannot anticipate every situation and environment, so we will not descend too far into specifics, instead relying on concepts and principles that are broadly applicab...

In the first three parts of this series, we discussed several conditions and prerequisites for community defense - the WHERE, WHAT, WHEN, and WHO. The last topic encompassed recruiting, organization, and leadership in general terms, focusing mostly upon preparatory measures that ought to be undertaken before and in anticipation of a crisis. Now we'...

A useful tool for breaking down complex problems into digestible chunks is the "WHAT - WHO - WHEN - WHERE - HOW" paradigm. Parts 1 and 2 of this series addressed WHAT and WHEN, describing some of the constraints on planning and preparing in "normal" times to protect your community against emerging threats; and presenting examples of historical and ...

The first article in this series focused upon the social and legal constraints we face in "normal" times, preparing to defend our communities against potential violent threats under future, "off-normal" conditions. Here we'll present representative examples of a variety of threats - some historical, and some hypothetical - that would provide a rati...

We live in a networked society 330 million in the US (of 370 million total in North America), sustained by a complex infrastructure with both private and public/governmental components that provide a means of exchange, deliver power, transport goods and services, enable communication, and maintain civil order. Kick out one leg of a three-legged sto...

Security Analysis provides a foundation for all forms of planning, preparedness, and security in the face of threats to our well-being. It calls for a hard and disciplined look at our surroundings, which helps us to anticipate threats, recognize them when they appear, and prepare in advance to manage or defeat them. Security Analysis has several co...

Our previous article in this series, THREAT ASSESSMENT: The Concept, introduced a five-step process for this first phase of risk management. This post will discuss that process in greater detail.   Our Threat Assessment method has five steps: Describe the target: what is it that you seek to protect, and under what conditions?List all threats.C...

Threat assessment is a disciplined process by which we characterize and prioritize threats to our well-being, and allocate our finite resources and efforts to avert, avoid, or mitigate them. To be useful, a threat assessment requires open-mindedness, focused research and intelligence-gathering, and deductive analysis. The U.S. Department of Homelan...

One essential skill needed in preparation for protecting a community is tactical tracking. Linked intimately with patrolling, tactical tracking will provide intelligence on any movement around the community and allow patrols to interdict potential aggressors. After establishing the community's perimeter, knowing who is moving around it will be a vi...