As we go through life we usually
are busy. Busy with family, work, or maybe looking forward to vacation or maybe
dinner out with some friends. We often focus on ourselves or our immediate
family or friends. The rest of the world becomes beyond our focus or interest.
But police often ruin things with
reminders about being aware of what is going on around you, especially when it
comes to crime. But, you say you don’t want to be “paranoid.” Life should be
more than obsessing on the bad that can happen to you. It should be about the
positive in life. And you’re right. But a little awareness can keep you out of
trouble or maybe give you an advantage in being a help if you find trouble
around you.
People who teach personal safety
often refer to a graduated scale- states of awareness:
1. White-
is where you are totally unaware of anything around you. Professionals
discourage us from being in this state as we go through the day. People in
white, are those who, after being robbed or assaulted on the street, say that
they never saw it coming.
2. Yellow-
is where you are aware of what is going on around you. You’re relaxed, but you
look around, if you are walking your stride is confident. You notice people
around you so that you can see unusual activity and then go on to the next
stage. This is where the professional personal safety trainer wants you.
3. Orange-
In orange you detect a potential threat. At this point, you should start to
develop a plan in your head to protect yourself.
4. Red-
In red you should be actively protecting yourself, either by fighting or by
running to safety.
5. Black-
If you are in black you are so overwhelmed by events, that criminals find it
easy to victimize you. You can easily go from white to black. It’s better to be
in yellow where you can inform yourself and be ready for any threat.
But being aware is not only for
your personal safety, it is important within your community and neighborhood.
This means being aware of your surroundings as you go about your day, by being
alert when you are at home, but also talking to your neighbors about incidents
that may have occurred when you are away from home or in parts of your
neighborhood that you cannot see. Knowing when there has been a burglary, car
prowl or other incident. Knowing about what is going on in your neighborhood
helps you to take action to protect yourself and your property (like
remembering to lock the doors to your car parked in the driveway). It also
allows you to collaborate with your neighbors to figure out the source of a
problem and to take action to if not remove it, at least to discourage it from
repeating (kids drinking in the park, cleaning up the park to make that kind of
activity less desirable to the kids).
Of course collaborating and
communicating is a lot easier now than in the “old days.” Talking face to face
with your neighbor is the best way in many situations. But, of course you need
to be in person with that person, which can be a challenge if you want to talk
to many people. With the telephone so ubiquitous by the mid-to-late 20th
century, police departments frequently recommended that neighborhood watches
develop “phone trees” in order to communicate vital and time sensitive
information. If someone in the neighborhood has been burglarized or had their
car broken into, then they could let their neighbors know what happened. Now
that the internet has become a constant part of our lives with the world wide
web, email, texting (SMS) through PC’s, laptops, tablet computers and even in
our pockets or purses with our smartphones, communication is much easier and
can be much broader.
Being alert to what is going on
around you has new tools that can help your community. For example, we have
talked about www.crimemapping.com which can give you information about all
kinds of crime incidents that have been reported to the Snohomish County
Sheriff’s Office. All you have to do is enter your address and you will see
what crime has occurred around you. Anyone can access this information and can
even sign up for email alerts.
Everyone in your neighborhood watch
may not be into checking the web site or signing up for a crime alert. If one
or two people in your neighborhood do receive alerts and/or regularly check the
site then they can pass the information on to the rest of the watch. This does
not replace information that your neighborhood watch members can exchange among
themselves where everyone can learn things about how burglars gained entry or
what was taken, which can help each member focus on how they can protect
themselves. www.crimemapping.com does not give a lot of detail about each
incident other than date, time, general address (such as 100 block of 123 St
SE), type of activity, and an incident number. But it can keep your neighbors
aware of what is going on around them.
Knowing what is going on around you
(the military calls it “situational awareness) can help you personally but also
your neighbors to keep yourselves and your property safe, especially if you use
the modern tools that we have to communicate.
