Personal safety
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Personal safety is the safety of an individual.
The emphasis on personal safety is the safety of individual members of society, rather than having the emphasis be on safety of the more abstract public. Traditionally, public safety falls under the role of police whereas the new arena of personal safety often falls under the role of the individual, or various human rights organizations, and the like.
Personal safety can be accomplished primarily by being trained to avoid areas of increased risk and to be aware of one's surroundings. Unfortunately, this imposes serious restrictions on a person's mobility and does not guarantee that an attack can not occur because a person is in an area considered "more safe" than others. Mugging, robbery, beatings and other forms of personal assault can and do occur in areas considered by many to be low-risk, such as on a college campus and during daylight. It is therefore imperative that a person be prepared and trained to emply a variety of tactics in order to avoid being attacked, or to deter an attack.
A cell phone is a nice tool to have, but is useless in a rapidly occurring attack. There is simply insufficient time to call for help when an attack begins, and the phone is usually quickly removed from the victim as soon as the attacker notices the victim attempts to utilize it.
Hand-to-hand training can be an extremely effective tool, not so much to attack the attacker, but to avoid physical advances from the attacker, or to cause the attacker to lose their balance or become disoriented.
Various weapons can be used to protect one's self. A can of pepper spray will be a very helpful distraction to allow escape from an attacker, but can never be considered an absolute in self-defense. It may allow enough time to momentarily cease the attack and retreat to a safer area. A person intertested in self defense should always be mindful that items like pepper spray or "mace" will only be a momentary distraction to the attacker. Some hardened attackers may have partial immunity to the pepper spray, by either reduced effectiveness (if the attacker is wearing glasses) or by sheer, unbridled determination to attack.
An additional method to ensure personal safety would be to carry a concealed handgun. Many do not feel comfortable with the idea, or physically become burdened with the weight of carrying a handgun.
Many limitations apply to the idea of carrying a concealed handgun, as most states require specialized training before being qualified, and must the intended carrier must also pass background criminal checks before a permit is issued. Concealed carry is typically regarded as the most effective form of defending one's safety and well being from an attacker.
[edit] Personal safety device (PSD)
Various forms of personal safety devices include inverse surveillance, sousveillance, personal capture, wearable heart monitors, data loggers, and black box walk recorders, as well as other devices that advance an agenda of personal safety. The main feature of a PSD is that it be borne on, in, or around the individual person protected by it.
[edit] Pro-active personal safety
Many personal safety devices include a feature that notifies others if and when a danger condition such as a trip and fall is detected. For example, if more than 10 successive frames of video stay constant, a person may have tripped and fallen, and not merely be standing still (in which case there is still slight change in video from frame to frame). Many PSDs create a cyborglog that has a network connection, and record evidence as well as plug into a notification algorithm, and notification list (personal safety distribution list) that may include multiple others (such as multiple caregivers) notified under various anomalities.
