Self Defense HQ

As I have discussed in the past, Tasers are the best alternative, in my opinion, to firearms for personal protection and self defense. Pepper sprays have their advantages as far as being easily concealed, or disguised. Stun guns do sound threatening, and can be painful, but outside of a firearm, nothing comes close to our Taser. The only issue that I have ever had anyone come up with is the fact that it still resembles a gun. The good news, for those that folks that don’t like to gun-like appearance, is that soon we will be carrying two new Tasers.
The first is the X26C. This is the same version that police departments across the country, including mine, now carry. In fact, the X26C is better in certain ways than the X26 (the law enforcement model, the ‘C’ means ‘citizen’). The X26/X26c is smaller than the M18/M18L, has advanced technology that makes it even more effective (hard to believe), and some other features that I will discuss further next time.
The second is the new C2. This one is the big deal. The C2 is just as powerful, but comes in four colors (for those that want to be stylish as they defend themselves) and doesn’t look at all like a gun. They will be available in April. I will be giving more details in the weeks to come.

Here is a very simple way to increase the security level of your home. Most houses these days, at least here in the west, use horizontal blinds as window coverings. When you close your blinds, ask yourself how you close them. When they are closed, and you stand near them, what can you see? The sky, or the ground? If you can see the sky, that means when someone (read burglar or pervert) stands near your windows on the outside, they can see your floor, your bed, or your bedroom or living room. They can tell where you are, and soon, how many of you there are. If you can see the ground from the inside, then from the outside your ceiling is all they see. Trust me on this. You want them to see your ceiling, not everything else. Tonight, at work, my team and I were able to use the way the blinds were closed to determine where, who, and how many people were inside of a house. They turned their blinds the wrong way. Had they turned their blinds the other way, no one could have seen inside. As a cop, I like it when I can see inside like this, for obvious reasons. We arrested our bad guy, and developed intelligence prior to entering. Bad guys, unfortunately for obvious reasons, too, also appreciate it when you make it easy for them to see inside your home. If I have to choose, I’d rather that society makes it difficult for both to see inside. I’ll still get the job done, and maybe the bad guy won’t.

Stay Aware.

One of the single most important jobs that anyone can do to to help the police do their job is to learn to be a good witness. Being a good witness isn’t something that comes as naturally as one might think. Just as I have said that how you will react during a critical incident depends upon mental preparation and practice, being a good witness does, too. One needs to begin noticing and being aware of their surroundings, taking into account what they usually see compared to something out of the norm.
For example, you know, or reasonably should know, the vehicles that are common in your neighborhood, or in the area where you work. When you see a strange car around, if you know cars well, take note of the make and model. If not, remember license plate, the color (or colors), size, how many doors, if the windows are clear or tinted, are there modifications such as special tires or wheels, spinners, the sound of the exhaust or engine, if it is lifted or lowered, etc. Even what direction it was going. See if it reminds you of another car that you might use as a similar reference. Then, if a crime occurs in the area, be it a residential or vehicle burglary, or a violent crime, you might have some very valuable information that may help lead police in the right direction. (One vital warning, though, is to not put yourself into any danger just to get us the plate number!)
It doesn’t just happen, though, being a good witness. It takes some practice. The more you practice these skills, the more calm and safe you will be during an incident, and the clearer your recall of such details will be.

Have you ever wanted to be trained by some of the most well known, experienced instructors in the world? How about trained in your own home? On your schedule? The next best thing to live training is available on your VCR, using self defense videos from the likes of Frank Cucci, Chris Clugston, or Ben Cooley. Frank Cucci is a former member of the Navy SEALs. In fact, he was a member of SEAL Team Six for four years. Chris Clugston is a man who has been involved in martial arts since he was about 12. He has traveled the world, seeking out the best martial arts training he could find, and putting his skills to the test, both in the ring and on the street. Ben Cooley trains SWAT teams and is a National Champion in firearms competitions.
There are many other tapes featuring several experts in a variety of disciplines. You can learn different types of hand to hand fighting techniques, become skilled with firearms, or understand how to develop the will to survive and create the mindset to overcome dangerous situations. There are some distinct advantages to self defense videos. They are less expensive than attending a school or seminar. You can use them on your schedule. Best of all, you can view them over, and over again. Whe I was a kid, the best we could do was watch Enter the Dragon all day long (and I did). But these videos break the techniques down, a bit better than trying to figure out what Bruce Lee was doing in slow motion.

One of the questions people ask me when they find out I’m a cop is “What can I do to be safe?” Well, one of the most practical, most effective, and, free methods of protecting yourself from danger is to be prepared for it. I know this is cliche, but it’s true. And I am not necessarily referring to carrying a gun, or a Taser, or pepper spray. I am talking about visualizing threats, and figuring out how you might handle them. We call it “what-if scenarios.” Good cops do it constantly. We drive around, and as we come to a liquor store, for example, we think to ourselves, “Okay, if a robbery just happens to go down right now , what am I going to do? Where will I go? What will he or they likely do?” If we have a partner, we discuss the possibilities with each other. Practicing scenarios in your mind will help make your body react the right way if/when it happens. I remember my first shooting. Thanks to years of training in SWAT, it went as well as it possibly could have. Time slowed down, I saw everything, and my partner and I worked together like a machine. Thats only because we practiced these what-if-scenarios many, many times, so when it went down, there was no talking about what to do, we just did it.
Everybody can, and should, take some time at least occasionally, if not everyday, playing what-if-scenarios. If you are a woman, you can go over scenarios in your mind like “What if I am approached on my way back to my car?” Will you run? Where will you run? Will you take the initiative, and strike first, and ask questions later? Where/how will you strike? Then what will I do?
Do you carry a cell phone? Do you know what agency you will reach if you dial 9-1-1 on your cell? Where I live, 9-1-1 on a cell phone gets you the highway patrol, not a local police or sheriff department…then the highway patrol dispatcher has to connect you to the local agency whose jurisdiction you are calling from. You might want to have the non-emergency number to your local department programmed into your cell, it may be a few seconds faster calling the non-emergency number with an emergency, than being transferred. And, if your cell has a GPS system, enable it att all times, not just when you call 9-1-1. If you are ever snatched up, we might be right behind you, sooner than later.
I’ll be discussing some more personal safety tips in the weeks to come. Tll then, plan ahead.

In the event that you are ever attacked, and you are well prepared for such an event by carrying a self defense weapon such as pepper spray, I encourage you not to hold back. Use as much pepper spray as needed to allow you to escape unharmed. (Frankly, it would be wise to carry more than one cannister of pepper spray, and give them a test spray about every six months.) However, be aware of factors which could create cross-contamination, meaning that you are also effected, such as wind (or foggy conditions, see my earlier post). I found out on duty one evening that there are other ways of giving yourself a dose of pepper, if you are just a little careless.
I had been on a call where I encountered a viscious dog, so I gave him a quick squirt of pepper spray, and he immediately chose to leave me alone. I was wearing a pair of leather patrol gloves at the time, and therefore, did not realize that just a bit of pepper spray dripped onto my index finger. Awhile later, I was on a suspicious person call, and was contacting a guy in the reporting party’s backyard, along with a couple of other officers. I had an itch on my nose, so I scratched it. Pretty soon, I noticed a mild irritation, then began sniffling and sneezing, and had to step away for a few minutes. I figured out what was going on, and borrowed a garden hose to rinse off my face, and gloves, and put them away for the night.
That just showed me how little pepper spray it takes to work. I have experienced tear gas many, many times, and it doesn’t have much effect anymore. Tear gas is psychological. Pepper spray is quite different. Physically painful and very, very irritating. Don’t try it, just take my word.

Often during the course of a duty shift, police officers need to be able to approach a home or business without detection. There are several methods people use to alert them to unwelcome intruders. One of these is the use of guard dogs. Dogs not only let others know you are coming, but often welcome you when you get there. First of all, when possible, we gather intelligence regarding these types of issues prior to making any approach. If we are made aware of dogs at the location, preparations for dealing with the mutts are made in advance. Usually, this involves some combination of tools, including perhaps a less lethal bean bag shotgun, a fire extinguisher, a Taser, and pepper spray. Pepper spray is the least harmful, as well as the most silent, which is why it it is so efficient. For the private person who might have reason to encounter viscious dogs, we carry a type of pepper spray designed for canines, called Mace Muzzle. It also has a velcro-like piece to attach it to a car or bicycle. I have used pepper spray numerous times on dogs, either to hush them up, or to prevent an attack. It is amazingly effective.

I have previously discussed the effectiveness of the Advanced Taser when used to take a violent offender under control. However, the Taser may also be effective in de-escalating a potentially violent situation before it begins. This is done by removing the Taser air cartridge form the Taser, taking the Taser off safe, and pulling the trigger. The Taser will activate, displaying a bright blue arc of between the metal prongs, accompanied by the rapid sound of electricity cracking and popping. Often, when you show this to the person or persons threatening to become a problem, they are quickly intimidated into submission with no further action necessary. It’s much the same as racking a shotgun. No one wants to be shot, and people are afraid of being shocked.
Now, there is one caveat to this option. One must be sure that the batteries in the one’s Taser are fully charged prior to attempting this exercise. Otherwise this show of force is very diminished. For example…a couple of years ago, a pair of officers, one of which was yours truly, were sent to check the welfare of a pretty fair sized, delusional fellow. He was claiming that there were people hiding in his apartment, telling him things that were bad, and he was going to have to kill them. He also had been threatening his neighbors, since, according to him, they were in on it, too. This poor guy was off his meds, and had been so for awhile. We determined that for his safety, as well as for the safety of anyone nearby, he needed to go talk to a doctor. Only thing was, he disagreed.
We tried to get him to see things our way, but he wasn’t having any of it. He told us that we better get ready for a fight if we planned on taking him away. I gestured to my partner that I was carrying a Taser. My partner suggested that I show him what was in store for him if he didn’t cooperate. But…..I hadn’t checked the batteries recently. So I looked at the gent, told him, “Okay, if you want to fight, we don’t want to, so you’re gonna get some of this.” I did as described above. Instead of the bright light and crackling zap of electricity, there was only a couple of slow, weak pops, which faded into nothingness…my partner just stared at me, and said, “Oh, that’s real good. Put that thing away and get ready.” The guy just looked at us, and laughed. And he was true to his word. After a brief struggle, he was taken away to the hospital. Hope he stays on his meds from now on.

Would it be nice to covertly know what is going on in your house, when you are not? Despite most of our best efforts, a determined burglar might still find a way in your home. Now you can be alerted to any activity inside your house while you are away, without the bad guy even knowing. There is a new audio surveillance system available from SDHQ called the Telespy. It looks and functions like a standard phone, but, if there is movement detected in your home, it will call you at any phone number you predesignate, and let you listen in. You can decide if it’s your kids coming home from school, or a bad guy. What a nice little surprise you can then arrange by calling one of my partners over to your house for a welcome party.

Do you ever talk to your child about “what if” scenarios? It is becoming an all too common story on the news about child abductions, or attempted abductions. One of the differences between an abduction and an attempt is the mental preparedness of the the child target. Perhaps it sounds a bit too much for some people to discuss with their youngsters, but the kids that get away usually tell later that they had been taught what to do by a parebt or teacher, or they learned it from an educational television show. Whenever I visit my children’s classrooms at school, I try to cover a variety of safety topics, and focus on what to do if they are ever approached by a stranger.
I usually begin by asking them to tell me what a “stranger” looks like. Have you ever asked your son or daughter that question? The common responses I get are things like, “He has a mask”, or “He is tall”, or “He wears sunglasses”. The theme is a man, and there is some generally spooky feature to “him”. A stranger is anyone, man or woman, that they do not know. There is no such thing as what a stranger looks like.
Kids need to be instructed to never, ever walk anywhere alone. If anyone ever comes near them, and they feel like something is wrong, they are right. If they cannot avoid the person, and they are grabbed, they should fight like a dog, and make all the noise that they can. If a child is being abducted, there are better phrases to yell than “help”. Boys and girls yell “help” all of the time when they play, and that word has lost much of it’s effectiveness. Screaming “You’re not my father!!”, or “You’re not my mother!!”, is more likey to get the attention of other adults and people in the area, and bring them to aid the child. Shouting “Fire!” may also be effective in the same way.
There are tools available from Self Defense Headquarters that children can carry as additional security measures against abduction. One of these is a personal alarm, such as the Electronic Pocket Whistle. Small, easy to carry. When a threat presents itself, push a button, and it puts out a 120db whistle, until you release the button. Or, the PAL Alarm and the Personal Alarm with a Flashlight, each have an alarm that activates when a pin attached to a cord is pulled. If your son or daughter is only toddler, the electronic child leash will let you know if they wander away over thirty feet from you. Ideal for busy playgrounds and parks with lots of distractions.