Human Trafficking and Situational Awareness
I’ve seen some posts popping up lately about watching out for human traffickers at local area shops and businesses. As a firearms instructor, one of the main points of my classes is situational awareness. If I can avoid a confrontation, it’s always better than getting into one, even if it’s just verbal. With that being said, here are some pointers about situational awareness and how to handle certain scenarios.
• Put your phone away. Seriously. The only way to have good situational awareness is to be tuned into your environment and you can’t do that if you’re focused on your phone.
• When you pull into a parking spot, before you kill the engine, look around. 360 degrees look around. In the firearms world we call this scanning. You’re looking for other people in the parking lot, other people in their cars, potential exits if you have to drive out. You see that car? Didn’t you just see it a second ago? Is it making several passes? If so, leave or wait for the car to leave.
• Get your kids straight. If you’ve got young kids, they need to know that the trip from the car to the store is all focus all the time. They need to be paying attention to the situation as well. Looking for cars, keeping quiet so you can focus, holding your or a sibling’s hand. This can be tough at first but the more seriousness you treat it with, the more they’ll get it.
• On the trip into the store, scan some more. You’re looking for the same thing. Other people in the lot, other people sitting in cars, cars cruising. This is the point where you don’t deviate. Car to store. Point “A” to point “B”. DO NOT LET SOMEONE STOP YOU. No conversations with strangers, no donations, no lending $5 to the guy who’s out of gas. It’s ok to say “Not now.” Get into the store.
• Once you’re in the store, you guessed it, scan. Make note of employees, exits, other people. It may not seem polite but make note of people who should not be there. Are you in a children’s clothing store and there’s a guy in there with no children? Keep an eye on him. At the grocery store and you keep seeing the same person regardless of aisle? Keep an eye on them. The point is that if something makes you feel uncomfortable, trust those feelings. We all have a great ability to pick up on small subtle details with our unconscious mind and all of those small out of place details will make us uncomfortable or even fearful. Pay attention to your gut.
• If someone is making you uncomfortable, you’ve got a few options. Bait them by doing something completely unexpected. Walk away from a full cart, put everything in your hands down and go to the other side of the store. If the person making you feel uncomfortable follows, now you have a legitimate issue.
• Next is confrontation. Note; this should be done in public with plenty of other eyes. If you see a person photographing you or your child, confront them. There is no right to privacy in a lot of states so legally, they don’t need your permission to photograph you in public, even a minor. However, it’s really creepy and should be called out. The last thing a predator wants is attention. Just like in nature, if everyone can see the predator for what it is, the plan is ruined. So, if you have the guts, walk up and loudly ask them what they think they’re doing.
• If you don’t want to confront someone but are certain they’re targeting you, the last thing you want is to go out to the parking lot. STAY IN PUBLIC. Get a store manager and explain what’s going on. You don’t have to leave the store until you are safe. They may offer to walk you to the car. Do not accept that offer. If it were me and I was certain a person was targeting me or my child, the last thing I would want is for that person to see my car and license plate. If the store manager confronts the person, explain what’s been going on and if possible, call law enforcement. Once law enforcement shows up, if the suspect is still there, you can have a conversation. Tell law enforcement that you aren’t comfortable walking to your vehicle by yourself and you’re uncomfortable with the suspect identifying your vehicle.
• Do not ask a stranger to escort you to your vehicle. If there is a trafficking ring, do you think they work alone? What if the stranger(s) you ask are there for a reason? In a real situation, only accept an escort from law enforcement.
• Let’s say the worst happens and you find yourself being attacked. Well, hopefully you’ve armed yourself and have taken some classes on how to deploy your firearm in a defensive situation. If you don’t carry, you have to fight. You have to fight like a rabid badger and don’t stop fighting until you’re unconscious or the attacker has left you alone. You have to think about what you would do in a scenario like this because the brain won’t be able to distinguish between reality and imagination if you’ve already pictured it. We all like to talk about “Fight or Flight” but people always forget about the most common reaction, “Freeze.” If you’re reacting to something traumatic for the first time, you will freeze. If you’ve trained for a scenario or imagined what you would do, you’re less likely to freeze and more likely to act.
These points aren’t meant to scare but to get you thinking about these situations before they happen. Being prepared extremely important in life and just reviewing this advice will make you more prepared. Please be safe out there.
I've decided to offer a women's group class. This will be a custom class limited to 2-5 women only with a heavy focus on situational awareness and threat cues.
You can sign up on my website at https://www.lfxtraining.com/classes