Am I being followed by that vehicle?

Posted by Larry Kaminer in Employee Safety, Home Safety, Travel Safety on April 21, 2011

The key point to remember is that you are much safer in a moving vehicle, even a slow moving vehicle, than when in or around a stationary vehicle.  So if you think you are being followed keep moving and consider the following strategies.

If you are able to, make three left (or three right) turns in a row.  You have essentially just driven in a “square circle” as it were, and the likelihood that you are NOT being followed is now almost zero; anyone who is still following you after this route detection / evasion maneuver should be considered a serious threat. A less brazen person would probably terminate their pursuit knowing they have been spotted.

Now proceed at safe speeds to the closest busy road, preferably a well light boulevard or even a highway.  Drive below the posted speed limit and turn on your hazard lights. This will draw attention to your vehicle.(In this situation you want to be pulled over by the police!) Slowing down also will allow you to get your bearings while operating the vehicle safely. While doing so initiate a 911 call. Try maintaining a consistent heading and make note of the cross streets. Most states require a hands free headset this making talking to the operator easier and safer.

Let the operator know you are being followed and then let the operator ask the questions. If you see a red light ahead, slow down and try time arriving at that intersection when the light is green so you don’t have to come to a full stop. If you have to come to a stop, leave a car length between you and the vehicle in front of you giving you space to maneuver if you have to. (You should make this a habit even if not being followed)

The operator will keep you on the line and he or she will direct a police car to intercept you.

This scenario is one reason it is always good to have more than half a tank of gas and to be always be generally aware of your location. A report in Seattle several years ago indicated that 25% of cell phone callers to 911 did not know enough about where they were making it almost impossible for emergency services to respond. Situational awareness is key.

In a situation like this it goes without saying you should not drive to work, home, your child’s school or any destination you frequent. This includes a friend’s house. If you will drive to a fire station or police station, let the operator know to which one you are heading so that a first responder can be curbside when you arrive. There have been cases where the person being followed has pulled into a busy grocery store lot in broad daylight and the perpetrator was brazen enough to still have tried to cut them off as they made their way on foot into the store.

No Comments

Home Invasions. Make Your home A Harder Target

Posted by Larry Kaminer in Campus safety, Employee Safety, Home Safety on February 6, 2011

 

Psychologically we are able to fathom a cagey burglar breaking in and stealing something when he knows we are not home. The notion that two or more criminals would burst in and invade when they know we are home is chilling.

This is not just a property crime. Home invasions include a display of power and a desire to control and terrorize, rob, kidnap, rape, assault or flat out murder the victim(s).  A growing number of invaders wear soft body armor and brandish intimidating weapons.  More often than not these are hardened criminals with extensive records who will not hesitate to resort to violence. The good news is that overall, home invasions tend to be on the decline, but solid safety and security protocol should always be in place. After all, favorable statistics mean nothing if heartless criminals target your dwelling.

Here are some things you can do to harden your home and make it less vulnerable to a home invasion.

If the home is recessed from the road, does the driveway have good lighting? A British study reveals that dusk-to-dawn low level lighting is thought to be a more effective deterrent than motion detector lights. I like both! Be sure the garage, parking area and sides of the dwelling are also well lit. Prune or remove bushes and shrubs that offer natural cover, especially near ground floor windows and all entrances.

If your property is fenced, take the time to close and lock gates. Ask yourself if your 230 pound nephew on football scholarship can kick in your front or side doors. If the answer is yes it’s time to beef up the frame, the door itself and all hardware. Deadbolts should have no less than an inch of travel into the frame.

Applying modern laminates to the glass makes breaking through a window more difficult.  Sliding glass doors must be reinforced. Windows to the basement should have bars.  A bed of small river pebbles strategically placed in front of windows make a quiet approach more difficult.

If you have an alarm, use it. Criminals know that most home owners never arm their systems. Know how to use the panic features. If you have a wireless panic button fob, keep it on you. Teach your children how to use the panic button too. When you park in the driveway, bring the remote to the garage in with you. Always lock your internal garage door. This is a common entry point since invaders know we tend to leave that door unlocked.

It is best to close drapes at dusk, dawn and during night time hours.  During their surveillance phase, criminals will feel less sure about attacking if they cannot establish who is at home, in what rooms, and if they can account for everyone in the dwelling.  Be aware that an invader might have done pre-crime surveillance of the home when delivering something, or working as an installation technician etc. Instruct children to never open the door for a stranger and be wary of any unexpected visitor, even during the day.

Don’t leave stepladders on the side of the house. They offer easy access to upper floors.  So always lock upper story patio doors and easy to access windows.

Keep all doors to the home locked, even during the day.  You would be surprised at how many people don’t, stating, “But we live in a safe neighborhood”.  Long gone is that nostalgic and care free Norman Rockwell existence. Anything can happen anywhere at any time. If someone is determined to get in, make them work for it. Anything that allows you detect and delay an entry buys you time to react. An unlocked door gives you neither.

Designate a “Safe Room” with a sturdy door where you can retreat with your cell phone if need be. Be sure that you receive a cell signal in this room. Keep an index card with your home address, a flash light, bottles of water and a fire extinguisher in the safe room. If you are not calling from a land line, the 9-1-1 operator will not know your address. You can easily read your address from the card if you are in a state of fear.  Make your children aware of this room and why it exists. Practice moving to it efficiently as a family. If you live in a larger or two-story home, you may want to setup more than one safe room.

Remain alert when leaving or returning to your neighborhood.  If you think you are being followed do not drive home. Proceed back to a well lit busy area or a police station and call for help.  In the case of the home  invasion and murder of Dr. Petit’s family in Cheshire Connecticut last year, the perpetrators first noticed Mrs. Petit and her daughters when they were in town shopping and then followed them home.

If you don’t already have one, get a dog. Large or small, they are excellent early warning systems with far better special senses than ours.  Dogs are also consistent in their vigilance unlike us humans who become complacent, take short cuts and eventually forget about the golden rules of home and personal safety.

1 Comment

Missed Opportunities with Red Flags and Warning Signs

Posted by Larry Kaminer in Campus safety, Employee Safety, Human Resources on January 14, 2011

Missed Opportunities with Red Flags and Warning Signs

We want to thank Rick Shaw, founder and CEO of Awareity for providing this timely guest blog entry.

Already in 2011, tragedies in Tucson and Omaha have reminded each of us about the consequences of missed opportunities involving red flags and warning signs.  Lives were lost and lives will be changed forever because of these and many other tragic incidents.

We are now learning numerous red flags and warning signs existed involving the gunman in each tragedy, which has many people asking why these two tragedies were not prevented and how can we prevent future incidents like these from occurring?

Some people are suggesting new gun control laws in Arizona or new laws that do not allow guns within 1000 feet of government officials.  In Omaha, some are suggesting school metal detectors and cameras.

Unfortunately these suggestions are knee-jerk reactions that miss the point.  The ‘big picture’ issue is prevention and what organizations need to do differently to improve their prevention and intervention efforts.

For example, what are schools’ responsibilities for sharing information with appropriate entities in the community and how can we ensure all dots are connected across multiple locations, multiple levels of law enforcement, mental health professionals, etc.?

Organizations need to encourage and empower people (students, faculty, staff, law enforcement, parents, employees, community members, etc.) to report suspicious incidents, red flags and warning signs as soon as they identify them.

All personnel should be trained to look for early indicators – behaviors and warning signs (bullying, intimidation, threats, harassment, targeted violence, etc.) – that require immediate reporting.

Organizations need to offer anonymous incident reporting options and the ability to automatically deliver incident reports to the right people…even if the right people are in multiple locations or at multiple organizations.  Once incidents have been reported it is also critical to ensure all necessary follow-up actions are documented, appropriate authorities are notified and red flags do not continue to fall through the cracks.  Traditional and status quo incident reporting systems rarely offer this level of holistic functionality.

Organizations need to centralize and securely share information more effectively across silos, organizations and communities.  Sharing has been difficult because of paper-based methodologies and because of lack of awareness involving privacy regulations such as FERPA and HIPAA, as well as political and authority breakdowns.

Organizations need ongoing training based on individual roles and responsibilities, more comprehensive policies and procedures, increased awareness on how to recognize behavioral changes, secure access to professional threat assessment and behavioral analysis teams, and effective ways to continually connect the dots (people dots and process dots). Organizations need to empower their people (and third-parties) with proactive prevention tools that replace status quo and reactive approaches that are not working.

With improved situational awareness, improved information-sharing and proactively identifying red flags, organizations will be able to prevent incidents, rather than reading about them in the news.

About Awareity  & Rick Shaw

Awareity’s Founder and CEO, Rick Shaw has over 27 years of experience with managing risks, technology, processes, clients and people at both large and small organizations. In addition to Rick’s
experiences, hundreds of case studies, incidents and failures have played a key part in Rick’s vision and the development of Awareity’s innovative and forward thinking web-based services.  Rick is passionate about helping schools and organizations implement comprehensive safety procedures, behavioral intervention teams and threat assessment team programs that ultimately help them prevent expensive and embarrassing incidents.

Rick’s Blog

Rick can be reached at rick.shaw@awareity.com

1 Comment

Safety in Elevators. Awareness & Reading Body Language Save the Day

Posted by Larry Kaminer in Campus safety, Employee Safety, Human Resources, Outside Sales on November 22, 2010

This story was told to me by an executive when the topic of elevators and personal safety came up.

She states her daughter was riding in an elevator with her on the way to their room on the 5th floor of their hotel.  An ordinary-looking young man entered the elevator when it stopped on the second floor. The elevator doors opened again on the third floor at which time a young women boarded.

The executive said she got a bad vibe from the young man and woman but was not able to pinpoint why.  Her gut-feeling that something was amiss was intensified when she noticed these apparent strangers make very brief eye contact, as if communicating with one another.

The doors opened on the 5th floor; the young man and woman exited before the executive and her daughter. The young man went left and the young woman right, again looking as if they were not together.

The executive pulled her daughter back into the elevator just as the doors began to close. Her daughter looked confused by her mother’s actions until she explained.  The young man and woman were working as a team but entered the elevator on separate floors to camouflage this fact. The executive’s daughter was looking down at her Smartphone during the elevator ride and missed the subtle cues her mother noticed:  the incongruent body language, darting eyes and very brief eye contact.

Because her mother was paying attention, she connected the dots and understood these pre-crime indicators for what they were. This information led her to understand that the man and woman going in opposite directions upon exiting the elevator were not as they appeared.  On the surface, it looked like two people that did not know one another, but, in fact, it was two people setting up to position and trap the executive and her daughter in the quiet hallway.

Law enforcement reminds us that criminals are working more frequently as male/female teams, often to look like couples. This is because so many of us assume females are less inclined to engage in crime, especially violent crime and because a couple will draw less attention from law enforcement than a pair or group of young males.

Human beings are the most cunning predators of all.  Remember to “think outside the box” Not every situation is what it appears to be. An observant person will be able to pick up on subtle cues that something is amiss. Those that are not paying attention miss those critical moments in which a ruse may be seen for what it is and too often become victims of an avoidable crime.

3 Comments

Partner Violence as a Workplace Issue. Some Stats, Facts & Policy Suggestions

Posted by Larry Kaminer in Domestic violence, Employee Safety, Human Resources on November 18, 2010

We want to thank Kim Wells,  Executive Director of The Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence for providing us with this informative blog entry.

The Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence  is a national nonprofit organization founded by businesses with a mission to address domestic violence as a workplace issue.

Below are some very sobering statistics and facts on the troubling issue of partner violence and its impact on the individual and workforce.

What can you as an employer do and where should you start? At the bottom of this article you will find a link to the “six steps” that the Corporate Alliance suggest for creating a successful domestic violence in the workplace policy. (PDF Format)

So how does domestic violence impact the workplace?

Here’s some insight from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

  • In February of 2008, the CDC released the most comprehensive US survey regarding intimate partner violence – 23.6% of women and 11.5% of men reported at least one lifetime episode of intimate-partner violence.
  • According to the CDC, intimate partner violence victims lose a total of nearly 8.0 million days of paid work a year—the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs—and nearly 5.6 million days of household productivity as a result of the violence.
  • The cost of domestic violence to the US economy is more than $8.3 billion. This cost includes medical care, mental health services, and lost productivity (e.g., time away from work).

And some additional insights into productivity losses:

  • Researchers from the University of Arkansas found that women who were victims of recent domestic violence had 26 percent more time lost to tardiness and absenteeism than non-victims.

If you think that this does not happen to people who work, think again.  The Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence did a national survey of full-time employed adults, and found the following:

  • 21% of the full-time employed adults polled identified themselves as victims of domestic violence; 64% percent of them indicated their ability to work was significantly impacted
  • 31% of co-workers felt obliged to cover for a co-worker who as a victim; 38% of co-workers were concerned for their own safety

What about abusers? The Maine Department of Labor found that:

  • 78% of surveyed perpetrators used workplace resources to express remorse or anger, check up on, pressure, or threaten their victim
  • 74% had easy access to their intimate partner’s workplace
  • 21% of offenders reported they contacted the victim  at the workplace

And why is it that victims don’t just leave?

  • In cases of homicide related to domestic violence; 75% of the time it is when the victim is leaving or has left the abuser. This means leaving is potentially VERY dangerous for a victim—a victim who may be your employee.

What about workplace safety?

  • Domestic violence coming to the workplace accounts for 24% of workplace violence incidents (BLS, October 2006)

So why should employers care about this? If you haven’t already gotten the sense (and there is more information available in the Facts and Stats section of our website):

  • It is an absenteeism issue
  • It is a productivity issue
  • It is a turnover issue
  • It is a presenteeism issue (this means you are present, but not really focused and able to work)
  • It is a workplace safety issue

And who in your workplace is potentially impacted by domestic violence coming to work?

  • Victim
  • Abusive person
  • Co-worker
  • Manager
  • Family member

So what can an employer do?

There are the “six steps” that we suggest at the Corporate Alliance for creating a successful domestic violence in the workplace policy. Click here to take you to our site from which you many download the PDF.

Kim Wells may be reached at 1-309-664-0667 or email her at caepv@caepv.org.

Additional Resources:

Eastside Domestic Violence Program(Greater Seattle Area)

Human Resource Essential

2 Comments