Personal Safety Training

Last time we wrote about staying safe when travelling by car this post we’ll focus on the do’s and don’ts of taking taxis.

Most people will only take a taxi when for some reason they can’t use another form of transport either because it’s not convenient for public transport or having had a drink, driving would be illegal and probably unsafe as well.

So let’s think about the combination of factors which can add to the risk of taking a taxi –

• You’ve had a drink and so may not be as clear or focussed as you would be when sober
• It’s dark, it may also be raining and hence passers-by are less likely to observe you, the vehicle you get in to and certainly not the taxi driver.
• You’re getting in to closed box that can take you pretty much anywhere with a complete stranger.

All of this adds up to a perfect storm of risk for the unprepared or the unwary.
So how can you make taking a taxi safer?

• The best protection you can have is to travel with friends – remember the old adage ‘safety in numbers’. Not only does this reduce the cost it’s unlikely a lone driver will try anything with a group of you.
• Speak to your Student Union. Usually they can recommend a cab firm or may have an agreement with a local firm to take student’s home even if they have run out of cash (more on this later).
• Use the recommended firm and book your taxi well ahead of time. Ask who will be collecting you and give a name to the firm so you know it really is your driver when the cab turns up.
• Before you get in ask who they have come to collect – check it is your cab.
• Ask the driver for his details

Get on your phone (or pretend to) and ring someone – your conversation goes like this –

You – ‘Hi Dad, (Dave). Yes I’m just leaving now, yes of course it’s a proper firm – its (give name of firm).

Pause to listen – imagine Dave (or your Dad) asking you for the name of the driver.

You – ‘The driver?’  Turn to the driver.  ‘Sorry it’s my Dad (boyfriend) he wants to know your name and number’.

At this point the driver should give you his name.

You – ‘The driver’s name is Pete and his number is KH54DEY.  Yes I’ll be about 15 minutes.’

Turning to the taxi driver ‘Pete I’m really sorry about that – my Dad (Dave) does the doors and he’s just over protective’.

Now – instead of thinking you’re an easy victim in a locked moving box, your driver thinks there’s someone at your destination expecting you to arrive within 15 minutes and that person has all the details they will need to alert the Police if you don’t turn up at the appointed time.

So you’ve run out of money and don’t have the fare to get home – now what do you do?
Sheffield Hallam Union have a great scheme. With one of their approved firms you can hand over your Student Union card in lieu of payment. The next day the taxi driver takes the card to the Union who pay your fare. You get a message from the Union to come in to collect your card and pay what is owed in return for your card. Maybe your Union has a similar scheme – why not call in and find out.

Want to know more about Personal Safety courses for Students from Brooks Jordan? Speak to us on 01623 407793 or visit our website at www.brooksjordan.co.uk for more safety tips or to book training.

KEEP SAFE AND PARTY ON!

Follow Brooks Jordan on Twitter for the next Travel Safe installment on taking public transport.

Employers are by required by Health & Safety legislation and other supporting legislation to assess the risk of violence as they would any other workplace related potential hazard. This is the beginning or staring point of an objective process that includes control measures; included in this is training.
As well as assessing the risk regarding violence in the context of health and safety,
organisations must assess risk in the context of the services provided and consider all relevant related legislation and guidelines. The threat of violence must be mitigated as far as possible

There are two main types of risk assessment to assess the risk of violence
(1) Pre-Planned (2) unplanned normally referred to as Dynamic Risk Assessment

(1) Planned Assessment (carried out prior to duties being performed)
A planned assessment should be undertaken and reviewed at set intervals in accordance with the organisations policies on risk assessments by designated individuals. It is important that employers clearly set out who is responsible and what level of assessment is required, how and when these should be carried out.

Recording systems and tools need to be identified to support the process and they
must be effective in identifying and distributing key information to management and all relevant staff in relation to the risks of violence and where necessary should be evidence based.

Any need for further improvements, control measures or risk assessments should be recorded and the necessary time schedules for this recorded.
It is also essential to analyse reported incidents including any near misses, and to identify common events and how often they occur.

Planned (static) risk assessments, must include the following:

 All Incident reports including near misses and threats & trends
 Policies/procedures and role expectations
 Environmental/situational risk factors
 Tasks activities & any high risk duties performed by the staff etc
 The Root causes behind the event and any other relevant information
 Service user and any other bystanders considerations.

One of the UK’s top Health & Safety litigation barristers uses just 4 questions when deciding if there is a case to answer:

(1) Could the risk have been foreseen ?
(2) Where policies & Procedure put in place ?
(3) Were training needs identified and carried out ?
(4) Did the staff respond as they had been trained too ?

If a negative answer is given to any of the above then someone is liable and litigation will follow.

Dynamic risk assessment (carried out whilst performing duties)

A situations can develop suddenly usually by unexpected circumstances and an accurate dynamic situational risk assessment may have to be conducted on the spot.
Staff in these circumstances need to act in a way that they could legally & morally justify
They will need to make an immediate assessment of the situation and may have to employ escape tactics.
This is why good personal safety training is important staff should have been trained and provided with the necessary tools to make a safe retreat.
Research as established that when violence as occurred it was established that it was the individual staff members response that escalated the situation.

Example of a pre-planned & dynamic risk assessment

An health visitor is requested to make an home visit on an elderly lady (Lone working situation)

A planned risk assessment is carried out which identifies the following:

The lady is in her eighties and lives alone in a respectable rural county village
A check with on the critical incident register identifies no previous issues related to this property so this is rated as a low risk situation.

However the member of staff later visits the lady and the door is answered by a young untidy looking man who reluctantly lets the health visitor in.

The elderly lady identifies the young man as her nephew who is just visiting and goes on to say she had not seen him for many years prior to him turning up without any warning.

The heath visitor having been trained in personal safety & conflict resolution recognises the Warning signs being demonstrated by the young man and carries out a dynamic risk assessment.

The health worker has also been trained in breakaway skills and knows the importance of keeping her exits routes clear, maintaining a good reaction gap, and being pre-pared to use a pre- programmed response if the situation changers, e.g she starts to witness Danger signs

The pre-programmed response could be some-thing as simple as making an excuse to return to her vehicle for example claiming she need to go and get a benefit form from the car.

The use of any physical breakaway skills should only be used as a last result when all other forms of diffusion have been applied and failed.

Post critical incident debrief & review

All near miss incidents provide valuable learning enabling staff & management to evaluate the risk assessments control measures.
Staff should be encouraged to see every situation as a leaning experience (e.g No such thing as failure only feedback)
This particularly important in incidents involving conflict resolution and diffusions techniques e.g How could we do this better next time ?

Conclusion•

An effective work related violence risk assessment is the key factor to a successful violence prevention strategy

 Planned risk assessments are the main starting position s and are necessary for the establishing good/effective control measures
 Certain duties and job specific activities carry inherent risks should be identified within the risk assessment process to reduce the risk of violence
 Dynamic risk assessment training will help staff to respond appropriately to a developing situation and minimise the risk of escalation into violence etc
 Incidents and near misses need to be professionally monitored & assessed to ensure personal support and identify any further training needs
 Enquiries need to concentrate on the Root cause
 An effective training programme needs to be put in place incorporating all available risk assessment data and should be continually monitored

Why good professional physical intervention skills training is so important

Shoplifter begged for mercy as guard ‘choked him to death.

A shopping centre security guard killed a shoplifter trying to stop him escaping with a bottle of perfume.

Aaron Bishop, 23, turned blue and pleaded ‘please help me’ as he was choked by Sam Bawden, 25, according to witnesses.

Horrified shoppers begged him to let go of Mr Bishop, a former Guardsman at Windsor, but Bawden maintained a firm grip around the throat and when police arrived, Mr Bishop was dead.’

‘Four security guards tried to restrain him after he took the bottle of Joop! from the Debenhams store at the busy Quadrant Shopping Centre in Swansea.
Prosecutor Patrick Harrington QC said; ‘Mr Bishop was seen on CCTV to steal a bottle of Joop! perfume. It was priced at £35 but the cost proved very high indeed.

Bawden, of Neath, South Wales, denies manslaughter in July last year…
The case continues at Swansea Crown Court.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313952/Security-man-killed-shoplifter-Guard-choked-death-35-perfume.html#ixzz10qCPEXI4

The above tragic news report just goes to highlight the importance of understanding the dangers involved in physical intervention.

As an experienced martial artist who as trained up to black belt standard in Judo and other martial arts I understand just how effective a properly executed strangle hold can be, but also recognise just as lethal this can be.

Many things can go wrong when applying physical intervention techniques (often known as Control & Restraint) which is why training should be of the utmost importance for employers who are likely to have to employees who may need to use  physical controlling techniques such as those working in the security industry.

The Police and Medical profession trainers have for many years known the dangers associated with physical restraint and there have been many incidents of defendants & patients losing their lives whilst restraint techniques were being applied.

Strangulation is a band technique now in any accredited Physical Intervention training course, but there are numerous other potential life threatening issues such as positional asphyxia.

This occurs when pressure is put on an individual’s chest whist attempting to pin them down to the floor etc

This restricts the intake of air causing the individual to panic which is often wrongly interpreted as fighting back and there have been many tragic incidents of this in police custody suites & Psychiatric wards.

The SIA have now recognised that training in physical interventions is important and have introduced this as a new module to be undertaken by anyone now wishing to gain employment in high level security work e.g. a door supervisor in the UK.

As with the other modules that have to be taken delegates will have to demonstrate their competence in this area to receive their pass accreditation.

Hopefully this training will give those individuals now joining this industry the necessary tools they need to carry out the job without putting others or themselves at risk.

Sadly though this would not have prevented the death of Aaron Bishop or the criminal proceedings being brought against Sam Bawden as this training is currently only compulsory for those individuals who are now seeking to obtain the SIA badge and there are no current plans for this to be extended to those already licenced.

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Lock Up Your Daughters* – (And Other Unrealistic Suggestions for 21st Century Living)
Any parent will tell you their greatest concern is for the safety of their children. Conscientious parents wouldn’t dream of letting younger children cross the road without teaching them how to cross safely – so why is it so hard to provide the same life skills when teenagers start to socialise independently?
The answer may be that teenagers simply don’t want to listen to over protective parents. Or perhaps parents don’t feel able to provide the right advice – after all the world is now a very different place to how it was even thirty years ago. For these reasons schools are now starting to buy in life skills training for teenagers about to make their way in the world for the first time.
Life Skills Training
So what does the training cover? For pupils of Silverdale School, a beacon language academy in Sheffield, this training has been on offer for over ten years. The programme covers managing personal safety awareness, risks to be aware of when visiting, local public houses, night clubs, taking taxis, and generally going out and about alone in an unfamiliar city – a common experience for students heading off to university for the first time. Students new to an unfamiliar town experiencing independence for the first time often find it exciting to visit backstreet pubs where they will be unfamiliar with the area, its reputation or, once inebriated may even have difficulty finding their way home. This can pose its own risks as students new to and unfamiliar with an area may be easily identified by local thugs who see them as easy targets.
So here are a few of the simple tips taught by Brooks Jordan –
When you go clubbing/partying
• If possible try to go out as a group of friends or at least arrange for someone to be your nightclub buddy for the night.
• Arrange to regroup at the end of the evening to travel home together.
• If an individual wants to go home separately make sure the rest of the group know where that person is going and who with.
• If someone you don’t know offers to buy you a drink, make sure you watch the drink being served and handed to you.
• It is also best to drink bottled beers straight from the bottle. However undignified this may seem, it makes it much more difficult for someone to drop something in to a bottle than a wide necked glass (Date Rape drugs etc ). Although this practice can cause other problems e.g Wails decease
• Don’t leave your drinks unattended – leave someone you can trust to watch over them or finish your drink before leaving it.
• Watch out for each other – if one of your group seems suddenly disorientated or appears to be drunk without having had too much to drink, speak to one of the bar staff or club security team quickly and ask for help. It is now a legal requirement for door staff to be trained to identify and deal with someone who may have been given a date rape drug.
• Women out partying should also pay attention to their environment both the area – student accommodation can often be located in rougher neighbourhoods – and also the venue itself. In particular women should avoid drinking too much and should remain aware of their surroundings at all times. Being aware of warning/danger signs alerting you to potential dangers is far more difficult if you are under the influence of drink or drugs.

Personal Safety when travelling.
Getting Home
• Make sure you have the number of a trusted taxi company handy
• Order the taxi as if you were ordering it for someone else (find a quiet spot to do this)
• For example – ‘I’d like a taxi for my sister please’ ‘Yes – travelling from Upper Parliament Street Nottingham to High Street Beeston’. ‘ What time shall I tell her to expect you?’….. ‘How long will it take her to get here?’ ‘What’s the name of the driver?’
• This gives the impression that there is someone at home expecting you to get home, knows what time this will be and the name of the driver and the taxi firm if you don’t arrive at the agreed time.
• When the taxi arrives make it sound as if you’re just receiving a phone call – ‘Yes I’m on my way home now – yes it’s just arrived’. ‘The driver?’ (To the driver) ‘Sorry its my sister/ Mum/ Auntie just wanting to make sure I’ve got the right taxi can I just tell them what you’re name is and what time they can expect me home?’
• Back to the phone ‘ Yes of course its a proper taxi his number is (read out the drivers number or the registration plate number).
• If you don’t have a nightclub buddy to take this call and there isn’t anyone at home waiting for you then still ring an answer machine and leave this conversation as a message on the machine. It serves the same purpose – no driver intent on abducting you will risk it if they think they’re likely to get caught. There are easier victims out there after all.
• When travelling on other forms of public transport such as buses or trains, avoid taking the window seat as anyone taking the aisle seat next to you will block you in. Sitting in the aisle seat will give you a far better chance of getting out if something untoward happens.
If you think these tips are useful and know someone who might want Street Survival training then contact us here for details of training in your area. If you mange a youth group or are in teaching and want more details for your club school or society then contact us to get further details of our Street Survival Skills Training for Teenagers or for more advice on Personal Safety Go to : www.brookskordan.co.uk
*Young men between the ages of 16 and 26 are the most vulnerable group in society as statistically they come off worst as victims of violent street attacks. [This may or may not surprise you and will be covered in more depth in next month’s blog.]

Brooks Jordan chosen to work with Bluecoat School
Brooks Jordan is working with the Bluecoat School in Nottingham to provide extracurricular training in personal safety and self-defence to their pupils. When the school was awarded central government funding for the training last year, they contacted Nottinghamshire Police to ask them to help source a suitable supplier – and the force recommended Brooks Jordan.

Initially, we ran a six week course for a class of teenage girls which covered the basics of personal safety, self- defence and some mixed martial arts training. This received tremendous feedback from both teachers and pupils. As a result, we are returning in the summer term to teach a similar course to a group of boys and Bluecoat is also considering asking us to run some of the other courses we provide.

Brooks Jordan director Chris Jordan comments: ‘We’re delighted that Bluecoat School has chosen Brooks Jordan to deliver personal safety training to its pupils. The school is very pleased with our work so far and we hope that the relationship will continue into the next academic year, possibly to include a broader range of subject matter. It’s great that Bluecoat is recognising the dangers that are posed to teenagers in today’s society and is taking action to help protect its pupils and give them the skills to get out of difficult situations without being hurt. We hope that other schools and colleges will follow Bluecoat’s example and take advantage of the available funding to offer similar training to their own students.’

Conflict Resolution training for UK Door Supervisors is to be strengthened

Plans to raise standards by introducing additional training for UK door supervisors form part of a Home Office consultation launched recently.

The aim of the new proposals is to protect the public by raising standards of training across the industry.

Additional training will include physical intervention, first aid, special considerations when dealing with young people and awareness of the threat of terrorism.

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) has already included the additional training elements as part of the new qualifications being introduced from June 2010.

View the full article http://www.sourceuk.net/article/14/14087/higher_standards_for_uk_door_supervisors.html

Brooks Jordan comments.

These proposals have been welcomed by the industry as a whole.
Today more than ever door supervisors need specialist training, terrorism is not going to go away and our public houses, nightclubs and other events where large crowds gather are obvious targets.

Anyone who has worked in the licensed trade knows the problems that can be caused by young people who have had too much to drink or taken drugs so extra training in relation to dealing with young and venerable people can only be a good thing.

As for training in physical intervention the industry is somewhat divided over this, but I believe this will also improve the professional image of door supervisors.

Individuals who go in for this kind of profession are usually physically capable and have experience of dealing with violence.

Many have a military background or are skilled in some kind of fighting art and there are times when these skills are appropriate.

Brooks Jordan provided some training to door staff and licensed premises management staff in the West Midlands in 2009 commissioned by the Police and the Licensing Authority.

The training was mainly on Conflict Resolution/ Personal Safety but we included a short introductory session on both Breakaway Skills and Physical Interventions.

This training concentrated on “No Pain” mechanically sound techniques. Door staff in particular were amazed at how effective these technique were and could not understand why this was not part of their training.

Others that have to retrain individuals already get this training, e.g. the Police, the Medical Profession (Acute Psychiatric Units), the Prison Service and others within the security industry

Having been involved in the licensed trade in the seventies & eighties and having worked alongside door staff during this period I am able to say that the door staff today (SIA badged) are a totally different breed.

For information on current courses on door staff Conflict Resolution training please go to: www.brooksjordan.co.uk
Or email info@brooksjordan.co.uk

Talk of the Englishman defending his castle provokes such a rush of blood to the conservative head that judgment disappears. Last week Munir Hussain was sent to prison for inflicting violent vengeance on a particularly vicious burglar
Read full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/22/munir-hussain-crime-law-defence#start-of-comments
This case is very similar to the Tony Martin case in that there is both a moral issue and a legal issue involved here.

Many people sympathise with Tony Martin & the Hussain brothers and belive these individuals should not have been convicted.
But under English law they are guilty as the force they all used was not reasonable.
In both cases the force they used went well beyond reasonable.
The simple fact is that at time Tony Martin pulled the trigger and the Hussins delived the blow that caused the brain injury to the robber any threat to personal safety had passed as in both cases the robbers were running away.
I expained in detail the critria that needs to be in place to establish self-defence in my October article.
In both cases it was perfectly legal and within the law to go after the robbers as we are all entitled to chase criminals in order to carry out an arrest and detain them until the Police arrive but that is all.
In theses two cases Martin and the Hussain brothers went that bit further and sought revenge and so could not rely on a self-defence plea.

Codes of Awareness

Jeff Cooper developed the Codes of Awareness concept back in the 1960’s and today we think nothing of describing someone as switched on (or switched off) without being aware of where the terms came from.

Jeff Cooper was looking for ways to help military personnel be prepared for and ready to take appropriate action whatever their circumstances. He developed the traffic light analogy to help explain this.

Switched Off – Code White

Someone who is switched off doesn’t even register on the traffic light scale – being switched off is only appropriate in your own home or in a secure environment where you know it is safe to let your guard down. Being oblivious to your surroundings when you are out in the street can put you at risk from an opportunist looking for an easy target.

Code Green – Attentive but relaxed

The next level of awareness is where most of us should be most of the time. This is the level of awareness needed for normal everyday living – for example knowing when and how to cross the road – being aware of your environment but not hyper-vigilant.

Code Amber – Attention raised for perceived threat.

You should be at a slightly higher level of awareness when you anticipate going in to a risky situation – for example working alone in an area you don’t know well or visiting the home of someone for the first time.
Code Red – There is a real threat.

At this point in the awareness scale you need to take evasive action. This is the point when you acknowledge that the person confronting you actually intends to do you some harm. For some it can be very difficult to acknowledge that physical assault is about to happen. This is fight or flight time.

If your attention was properly focussed when you went in to the unknown ‘code amber’ situation you would have spotted the potential danger before it became a real threat. If you are unfortunate enough to have to fight your way out of a situation – be prepared to make the pre-emptive strike.

Certain jobs or experiences will make some people more alert to their environment – being in the police, the military, a doorman or in the licensed trade is more likely to make you alert to the potential risks of your environment and thus more ready to respond if something happens.

The person most likely to be right at the top of the awareness scale is the criminal – being hyper-vigilant when they are about to carry out a criminal act means they are less likely to get caught. You may recognise this behaviour as unusual.

Having run thousands of personal safety courses throughout the UK I have met many individuals who have experienced extreme fear and yet others who claim they have never actually had a Fight or Flight reaction.

Fear is normal it can significantly enhance your chances of survival in a potentially dangerous situation.

The amigdala has developed over millions of years to aid our survival and once triggered it produces powerful performance enhancing chemicals to flood the bloodstream enabling us to become , Faster, Stronger, and in many cases we can become totally desensitised to pain.

The amigdala can be triggered by any of our senses e.g, smell, sound, vison, touch, etc. but for us humans most of the information we receive is through our eye sight.

Think about the example I gave in the previous issue about walking into a public house and just getting an uncomfortable feeling.

Through your eyes alone the brain is feed a vast amount of information most of which is filtered out but even the smallest micro pieces  of information that threatens your personal safety are high jacked by amigular before the logical brain gets an opportunity to analyse the situation.

So we walk into a bar, we scan our environment, read body bold language both verbally &  non verbally we are all experts at this, but some people excel at this by training in NLP for instance and we will look at this in later articles.

You may also notice there seems to be an  unpleasant atmosphere which you would have difficulty explaining to some-one but you just know something is not right.

Scientists have now established that this is why most of us do not become victims of violence we trust our instinct and remove ourselves from potential threats and that the small number of  individuals who become victims are just not tuned into their instincts or go into denial.

Two things to remember about instinct:

Firstly it is always a response to something.

Secondly: It only has your best interest at heart.

In the next issue we will be looking at awareness and the research that has been carried out into this.

You will learn how to increase your awareness significantly so that you can become your own personal bodyguard.