PFT's Personal Security Awareness Checklist
HOME SECURITY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consider installing a home security system. A home alarm can be an effective deterrent to criminal intruders. A variety of systems are available, ranging from inexpensive, battery operated door models to monitored, motion detecting systems costing several thousand dollars.
Never open your door to a stranger. Criminals can get a good look at you can your home by posing as a door-to-door salesperson, a neighbor who has lost a pet, or a floral delivery person at the wrong address.
Install a wide-angle door viewer. These are an inexpensive aid for identifying people at your doorstep. If children are allowed to open the door under certain circumstances, install a second viewer at your child's height.
Never tell a stranger that you are home alone. If they ask for your husband or the man of the house, tell then that he is taking a nap and cannot be disturbed.
Do not broadcast your plans in public where others can overhear. Burglars can use this information to determine whether your home might be an easy target in your absence.
Keep your house or apartment well lit. Use exterior motion-sensor lights and interior lights plugged into timers to create the illusion of an occupied home at all times.
Do not leave windows open or uncovered. Prevent casual observers from looking directly into your home. During the day, draw the drapes or position blinds to allow only enough light for plants. At night, cover your windows completely.
Keep trees and shrubbery around your home well trimmed. Overgrown bushes and trees often provide excellent hiding places for criminals.
Plant "defensive" shrubbery around your home, especially beneath windows. Bushes that feature thorns or stiff, spiky leaves are not good places for criminals to hide.
When moving into a house or apartment, always change or re-key the locks or have the tumblers reset. Otherwise, the previous resident - and anyone who had access to their keys - has unrestricted access to your home.
Never hide an extra key under a mat, in a flowerpot, or in any other easily accessible place. Criminals know all the hiding places.
Lock your doors when working in the yard, attic, laundry room, or any place away from your home's entry areas. While you are busy elsewhere, burglars could easily enter your home unnoticed.
Do not give information to strangers on the telephone. Thieves often target homes using information obtained from "telephone surveys".
If you use an answering machine, do not announce your name and number as part of your message. Avoid giving criminals any information about you. A common mistake is revealing your exact whereabouts in a message.
Consider keeping a separate line or cellular phone as a security device. Taking one phone off the hook renders other units on that line inoperable. Using a separate line or cellular phone in your bedroom is a good precaution.
Never give important information like travel plans or credit card numbers using a cellular phone. For fewer than one hundred dollars, anyone can buy scanning equipment and listen to your cellular phone conversation.
AUTOMOBILE SAFETY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always have your keys out and ready before leaving a building to approach your car. Fumbling through your purse for keys after you've reached your car provides criminals an excellent opportunity to sneak up on you.
Look around and in your car before entering. If you are concerned for any reason, walk past your car instead of getting into it.
Use a two-piece key ring with your door/ignition key separate from your other important keys. Give parking valets or mechanics your car keys only. Supplying your entire set of keys creates an opportunity for duplicates to be made.
If your vehicle has tinted windows, use the reflection to scan the area on either side and behind you. By being alert to your surroundings you could avoid a potentially dangerous situation.
Lock your car immediately after entering the vehicle. Make this your first action, even before putting your keys in the ignition.
Check your surroundings before you get out of your car. If something or someone strikes you as out of place or threatening, drive away.
If you are involved in an accident, stay with your car until the police arrive. In minor accidents where the other driver suggests you exchange insurance information, simply hold your drivers' license and insurance information against the window.
Consider acquiring a cellular phone. Using a cellular phone is an effective means of keeping help close at hand during accidents, breakdowns, or other roadside emergencies.
If you are accosted in a parking lot, away from your own vehicle, consider rolling underneath a nearby vehicle. It is difficult to force anyone out from under a car.
Make a practice of filling up your vehicle when your gas tank is about half empty. Never let it go so low that you are forced to stop for fuel, particularly at night in an area that you are unfamiliar with.
Lock your car and take your keys when you get out to pump gas. Leaving the door unlocked and the keys in the ignition invites a carjacking.
NEVER PICK UP HITCHHIKERS. It is never safe to have a stranger in your car.
PHYSICAL SECURITY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maintain your personal space. Stay alert! If a person moves inside your comfort zone, move away. If that person persists, run away.
Be alert when leaving stores or shopping malls. This is a time when criminals know you are carrying cash, checkbooks, credit cards, or valuable merchandise.
Don't use outside ATMs at night, or in unfamiliar or unsafe surroundings. This is another time when criminals know you are carrying cash.
Avoid filling your arms with packages. You might have to make more trips, but keep one arm and hand free at all times. 33. Avoid stairwells in parking garages. Try walking down the auto ramp instead. As long as you watch for cars, the ramp is much safer. If you have to have your hands full and are accosted, throw those items at your assailant and run (unless they are armed with a handgun).
When on the street, walk FACING oncoming traffic. A person walking with traffic can be followed, forced into a car, and abducted more easily than a person walking against traffic. Physical Security (cont'd)
If asked for directions by a driver, stay far enough away from the car that you can turn and run easily. An alternative is to simply state, "I don't know" and keep walking.
When friends drop you off at home or work, ask them to wait until you are safely inside before leaving. Extend this courtesy to your own friends when driving them to a destination.
If you are on an elevator and someone threatening gets on, quickly step off the elevator. Otherwise, press several buttons for upcoming floors and get off at your first opportunity. (Do NOT press the STOP button.)
Approach with extreme caution any entryway where normal lighting is not functioning. Removing, unscrewing, or breaking bulbs in such places is a common tactic of criminals.
Carry several dollar bills folded inside a ten-dollar bill. If accosted in a robbery, you can throw the "chump change" several feet away and the robber may scramble after it, allowing you a few moments to escape.
Seek Self-Defense Training. If your state allows good-citizen concealed carry of firearms, consider this option.
http://www.pgpft.com/SECURITY.HTM
