Situational Awareness

A Practical Guide to Situational Awareness

July 12

(News Media Report)

Situational awareness is very important, not just for personal security but as a fundamental

building block in collective security. Because of this importance, Stratfor has written about

situational awareness many times in the past. However, we believe it merits repeating again in

order to share these concepts with our new readers as well as serve as a reminder for our

longtime readers.

More Mindset than Skill

It is important to note that situational awareness -- being aware of one's surroundings and

identifying potential threats and dangerous situations -- is more of a mindset than a hard skill.

Because of this, situational awareness is not something that can be practiced only by highly

trained government agents or specialized corporate security teams. Indeed, it can be exercised by

anyone with the will and the discipline to do so. Situational awareness is not only important for

recognizing terrorist threats, but it also serves to identify criminal behavior and other dangerous

situations.

The primary element in establishing this mindset is first to recognize that threats exist. Ignorance

or denial of a threat make a person's chances of quickly recognizing an emerging threat and

avoiding it highly unlikely. Bad things do happen. Apathy, denial and complacency can be

deadly.

A second important element of the proper mindset is understanding the need to take

responsibility for one's own security. The resources of any government are finite and the

authorities simply cannot be everywhere and cannot stop every potential terrorist attack or other

criminal action. The same principle applies to private security at businesses or other institutions,

like places of worship. Therefore, people need to look out for themselves and their neighbors.

Another important facet of this mindset is learning to trust your "gut" or intuition. Many times a

person's subconscious can notice subtle signs of danger that the conscious mind has difficulty

quantifying or articulating. I have interviewed many victims who experienced such feelings of

danger prior to an incident but who chose to ignore them. Trusting your gut and avoiding a

potentially dangerous situation may cause you a bit of inconvenience, but ignoring such feelings

can lead to serious trouble.

The discipline part of practicing situational awareness refers to the conscious effort required to

pay attention to gut feelings and to surrounding events even while you are busy and distracted.At such times even obvious hostile activity can go unnoticed, so individuals need to learn to be

observant even while doing other things.

Levels of Awareness

People typically operate on five distinct levels of awareness. There are many ways to describe

these levels ("Cooper's colors," for example, which is a system frequently used in law

enforcement and military training), but perhaps the most effective way to illustrate the

differences between the levels is to compare them to the different degrees of attention we

practice while driving. For our purposes here we will refer to the five levels as "tuned out,"

"relaxed awareness," "focused awareness," "high alert" and "comatose."

The first level, tuned out, is similar to when you are driving in a very familiar environment or are

engrossed in thought, a daydream, a song on the radio or even by the kids fighting in the

backseat. Increasingly, cellphone calls and texting are also causing people to tune out while they

drive. Have you ever arrived somewhere in your vehicle without even really thinking about your

drive there? If so, then you've experienced being tuned out.

The second level of awareness, relaxed awareness, is like defensive driving. This is a state in

which you are relaxed but are also watching the other cars on the road and are looking at the road

ahead for potential hazards. For example, if you are approaching an intersection and another

driver looks like he may not stop, you tap your brakes to slow your car in case he does not.

Defensive driving does not make you weary, and you can drive this way for a long time if you

have the discipline to keep yourself from slipping into tuned-out mode. If you are practicing

defensive driving you can still enjoy the trip, look at the scenery and listen to the radio, but you

cannot allow yourself to get so engrossed in those distractions that they exclude everything else.

You are relaxed and enjoying your drive, but you are still watching for road hazards, maintaining

a safe following distance and keeping an eye on the behavior of the drivers around you.

The next level of awareness, focused awareness, is like driving in hazardous road conditions.

You need to practice this level of awareness when you are driving on icy or slushy roads -- or the

pothole-infested roads populated by erratic drivers that exist in many developing countries.

When you are driving in such an environment, you need to keep two hands on the wheel at all

times and have your attention totally focused on the road and the other drivers around you. You

don't dare take your eyes off the road or let your attention wander. There is no time for cellphone

calls or other distractions. The level of concentration required for this type of driving makes it

extremely tiring and stressful. A drive that you normally would not think twice about will totally

exhaust you under these conditions because it demands prolonged and total concentration.

The fourth level of awareness is high alert. This is the level that induces an adrenaline rush, a

prayer and a gasp for air all at the same time. This is what happens when that car you are

watching at the intersection ahead doesn't stop at the stop sign and pulls out right in front of you.

High alert can be scary, but at this level you are still able to function. You can hit your brakes

and keep your car under control. In fact, the adrenaline rush you get at this stage can sometimes

aid your reflexes.The last level of awareness, comatose, is what happens when you literally freeze at the wheel and

cannot respond to stimuli, either because you have fallen asleep or, at the other end of the

spectrum, because you are petrified. It is this panic-induced paralysis that concerns us most in

relation to situational awareness. The comatose level is where you go into shock, your brain

ceases to process information and you simply cannot react to the reality of the situation. Many

times when this happens, a person can go into denial, believing that "this can't be happening to

me," or the person can feel as though he or she is observing the event rather than actually

participating in it. Often, the passage of time will seem to grind to a halt. Crime victims

frequently report experiencing this sensation and being unable to act during an unfolding crime.

Finding the Right Level

Now that we've discussed the different levels of awareness, let's focus on identifying what level

is ideal at a given time. The body and mind both require rest, so we have to spend several hours

each day at the comatose level while asleep. When we are sitting at our homes watching a movie

or reading a book, it is perfectly fine to operate in the tuned-out mode. However, some people

will attempt to maintain the tuned-out mode in decidedly inappropriate environments (e.g., when

they are out on the street at night in a Third World barrio), or they will maintain a mindset

wherein they deny that criminals can victimize them. "That couldn't happen to me, so there's no

need to watch for it." This results in their being tuned out to any potential threats.

If you are tuned out while you are driving and something happens -- say, a child runs out into the

road or a car stops quickly in front of you -- you will not see the problem coming. This usually

means that you either do not see the hazard in time to avoid it and you hit it, or you totally panic,

freeze and cannot react to it -- neither is good. These reactions (or lack of reactions) occur

because it is very difficult to change mental states quickly, especially when the adjustment

requires moving several steps, say, from tuned out to high alert. It is like trying to shift your car

directly from first gear into fifth and it shudders and stalls. Many times, when people are forced

to make this mental jump and they panic (and stall), they go into shock and will actually freeze

and be unable to take any action -- they go comatose. This happens not only when driving but

also when a criminal catches someone totally unaware and unprepared. While training does help

people move up and down the alertness continuum, it is difficult for even highly trained

individuals to transition from tuned out to high alert. This is why law enforcement and military

personnel receive so much training on situational awareness.

It is critical to stress here that situational awareness does not mean being paranoid or obsessively

concerned about security. In fact, people simply cannot operate in a state of focused awareness

for extended periods, and high alert can be maintained only for very brief periods before

exhaustion sets in. The "fight-or-flight" response can be very helpful if it can be controlled.

When it gets out of control, however, a constant stream of adrenaline and stress is simply not

healthy for the body and mind, and this also hampers security. Therefore, operating constantly in

a state of high alert is not the answer, nor is operating for prolonged periods in a state of focused

alert, which can also be demanding and completely enervating. The human body was simply not

designed to operate under constant stress. All people, even highly skilled operators, require time

to rest and recover.Because of this, the basic level of situational awareness that should be practiced most of the time

is relaxed awareness, a state of mind that can be maintained indefinitely without all the stress and

fatigue associated with focused awareness or high alert. Relaxed awareness is not tiring, and it

allows you to enjoy life while rewarding you with an effective level of personal security. When

people are in an area where there is potential danger (which, in reality, is almost anywhere), they

should go through most of the day in a state of relaxed awareness. Then if they spot something

out of the ordinary that could be a threat, they can "dial up" to a state of focused awareness and

take a careful look at that potential threat (and also look for others in the area). If the possible

threat proves innocuous, or is simply a false alarm, they can dial back down into relaxed

awareness and continue on their way. If, on the other hand, the potential threat becomes a

probable threat, seeing it in advance allows a person to take actions to avoid it. In such a case

they may never need to elevate to high alert, since they have avoided the problem at an early

stage.

However, once a person is in a state of focused awareness they are far better prepared to handle

the jump to high alert if the threat does change from potential to actual -- if the three guys

lurking on the corner do start advancing and look as if they are reaching for weapons.

Of course, when a person knowingly ventures into an area that is very dangerous, it is only

prudent to practice focused awareness while in that area. For example, if there is a specific

section of highway where a lot of improvised explosive devices detonate and ambushes occur, or

if there is a part of a city that is controlled (and patrolled) by criminal gangs -- and the area

cannot be avoided for whatever reason -- it would be prudent to practice a heightened level of

awareness when in those areas. An increased level of awareness is also prudent when engaging

in common or everyday tasks, such as visiting an ATM or walking to the car in a dark parking

lot. When the time of potential danger has passed, it is then easy to shift back to a state of relaxed

awareness.

People can hone their situational awareness ability by practicing some simple drills. For

example, you can consciously move your awareness level up to a focused state for short periods

of time during the day. Some examples of this can include identifying all the exits when you

enter a building, counting the number of people in a restaurant or subway car, or noting which

cars take the same turns in traffic. One trick that many law enforcement officers are taught is to

take a look at the people around them and attempt to figure out their stories, in other words, what

they do for a living, their mood, what they are focused on and what it appears they are preparing

to do that day, based merely on observation. Employing such simple focused-awareness drills

will train a person's mind to be aware of these things almost subconsciously when the person is

in a relaxed state of awareness.

This situational awareness process also demonstrates the importance of people being familiar

with their environment and the dangers that are present there. Such awareness permits some

threats to be avoided and others to be guarded against when you must venture into a dangerous

area.

Not everyone is forced to live in the type of intense threat environment currently found in places

like Mogadishu, Juarez or Kandahar. Nonetheless, average citizens all over the world face manydifferent kinds of threats on a daily basis -- from common thieves and assailants to criminals and

mentally disturbed individuals intending to conduct violent acts to militants wanting to carry out

large-scale attacks.

As we noted two weeks ago, some of the steps required to conduct these attacks must be

accomplished in a manner that makes the actions visible to the potential victim and outside

observers -- if people are looking for such actions. It is at these junctures that people practicing

situational awareness can detect these attack steps, avoid the danger themselves and alert the

authorities to protect others.

As the jihadist threat continues to devolve from one based on al Qaeda the group to one based on

grassroots cells and lone wolves, grassroots defenders -- ordinary citizens practicing good

situational awareness -- become more important than ever before.