An Area Study is a collection and analysis of broad-spectrum information on a defined area, to support your planning and build situational awareness in advance of the need. It will profile both the human or social environment and the physical factors that can impact your security. The area study can never be static; it is not an exercise you comple...

Our previous article in this series, THREAT ASSESSMENT: The Concept, introduced a five-step process for this first phase of risk management. This post will discuss that process in greater detail.   Our Threat Assessment method has five steps: Describe the target: what is it that you seek to protect, and under what conditions?List all threats.C...

Threat assessment is a disciplined process by which we characterize and prioritize threats to our well-being, and allocate our finite resources and efforts to avert, avoid, or mitigate them. To be useful, a threat assessment requires open-mindedness, focused research and intelligence-gathering, and deductive analysis. The U.S. Department of Homelan...

An Assets Evaluation is a more detailed development and analysis of information compiled during your Area Study; or it can be conducted independently. Here you classify and characterize persons, groups, enterprises, and agencies that are beyond your direct control, but might contribute to your security against a variety of threats. Assets in this s...

One essential skill needed in preparation for protecting a community is tactical tracking. Linked intimately with patrolling, tactical tracking will provide intelligence on any movement around the community and allow patrols to interdict potential aggressors. After establishing the community's perimeter, knowing who is moving around it will be a vi...

If a phone, tablet, or laptop only store 24 hours of communication then how useful is that to the enemy? In contrast, how useful are months or years of someone's private messages? Many have their own favorite ways to communicate securely on messaging apps, but all will agree on this basic concept - encryption really works. Encrypted messaging, stor...

"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy." —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948. Socialism's benefits are touted as nationalization of key industries (i.e. free healthcare etc), redistribution of wealth (through taxation), social security schemes, minimum ...

Reminder: Components of Situational Awareness: Observation Perception Description Memory Human Behavior Deduction By now you should have a good handle on how to work on the skills of Observation, Perception and Description. Feel free to re-read our last article before diving in here. a. Memory. i. Tier One observation skills will not help you much ...

In this day and age, cars figure prominently in all aspects of life in America and that includes criminal activities. Whether in use by the criminal, the intended victim or just parked on the street, cars will be around most shooting incidents outside and the prudent practitioner of armed self-defense would do well to recognize this fact and take s...

August 16th was Primary Election Day in Wyoming. From our perspective, of the imminent crises facing the state, the nation, and the world, we draw several conclusions. For readers who are not residents of Wyoming, the political reality here, broadly drawn, is this. The state is overwhelmingly Republican. Most elective state and local offices are de...