Defensive Protection: things to do to keep yourself from becoming an inviting target for criminals, kidnappers, terrorists, or other hostile elements. Do not flaunt wealth, position, or status. Try to vary your patterns of activity. Do not keep to an exact time schedule. Use different routes of travel. Do not announce your appointment schedule to other persons. Keep most valuables out of your home and office. Carry a limited amount of cash on your person. Use a false wallet or purse containing a few dollars and out dated credit cards. Use a safe deposit box or other secure facilities for valuables. Permanently mark all personal items with your social security number. Travel with the car doors locked and windows up. To deter forced entry, use tapered door lock buttons. Put a hood lock and anti-theft device warning decal on your car. Use different locks for ignition, doors, and trunk. Lock your car when parked.  Do not leave it unattended with the engine running. Give the parking lot attendant only the key that turns your auto ignition. Install a simple antitheft device such as a hidden kill switch which prevents the car from being started unless the switch is activated.

For home and office, keep a log showing who comes and who goes. Most criminals like to look before they hit. Install quality non-posted double-cylinder deadbolt door locks that require a key inside and out. When at home, keep a  key in the insiede lock to speed your exit in case of fire. Add steel plates to give extra strength to the lock area of doors and door-frames. For sliding glass doors, use a slide bolt with a key or padlock. The old broom handle trick seldom works. Use a double-locking hardened steel keyed padlock through the roller track on garage doors. If doors have hinges exposed to the outside, remove two opposite facing hinge screws. Fix a pin in one hole, with at least 1/2 inch protruding into the facing hole when door is closed. Use the existing locks on windows and add locking window- bolts or pin locks. The latter are made by drilling a small hole through the interior frame into the exterior frame. Drill these at a down angle. Drop in steel pins and plug the hole with a thin layer of putty matching the color of the frame. Have a magnet nearby to quickly and easily remove in case of fire. For basement windows remove cranks. If breakage of glass is a threat, remove the glass and install Lexan plastic. It looks like glass but cannot be broken. Do not use window bars in situations where they would attract attention. Also plan for the possible emergency use of windows as a fire escape. When the hazard forced entry is great, add burglar alarms such as motion or sonic detectors. Look at alarm catalogs for ideas. For starters, try Mountain West Alarm Supply Company, Box 10780, Phoenix, AZ 85064. Keep a dog in the house, or record the loud barking of a dog on a small tape cassette that you can keep in a tape player on your night table. Start the player at the sound of a prowler. Use an electronic device to turn the lights, radio, and T.V. on and off when you are not home. When away, have a neighbor pick up your mail and/or papers and make the place look occupied. Better yet, organize a neighborhood watch program so that all homes are either occupied or observed. Demand identification of any stranger at your door. Beware of even the most respectable looking person as well as those in uniform. Do not open your door until you have observed the I.D. through a wide-angled peephole lens. Do not tell a caller that you are home alone. Repeatedly advise your children not to talk to strangers on the telephone or anywhere else. Also advise that your child never open the door to a stranger, and never accept rides, gifts, or job offers from anyone they do not know well. Beware of newspaper articles, obituaries, or anything that tells people when you will be away from home. Vary your routine as much as possible, and do not publicize your vacations. Beware of what you say over the telephone. It could be tapped. In high threat areas, keep your doors locked, even while at home. Know where your kids are, whom they are with, routes of travel, and when they should be home. Keep children away from potentially dangerous areas and situations. Arrange for adult supervision.

Should the overall security situation deteriorate, always travel with a buddy. Make sure that a third party always knows your plans and whereabouts. Use a telephone, CB radio, or other communication to give periodic status reports to a control unit. This could be one person on a radio base station with orders to send a posse if you fail to call in on time. A radio beacon panic button would also serve the same purpose. This is better because you can sound an alarm as soon as you are attacked. Be observant, the hostile opposition will keep you under surveilance if they are planning any action against you. Ask yourself where you saw that face, or that car, before. Make radical changes in your activity patterns even if you only suspect surveilance. Beware of all packages, and any mail envelopes that do not easily flex. They could contain bombs. Consider the hazard of a sniper, rocket, or grenade attack. Get out of the immediate area to avoid danger.  Wear soft protective body armor in very hostile situations. Also consider the need for arms or body guards. Make certain that your telephone and other communications do not reveal your appointments, travel plans, or other intentions. Do not panic upon receipt of telephone bomb threats or other types of threats. Clear the area and call for a bomb squad or other persons skilled in dealing with specific threats. Obtain intelligence on the intentions of those who wish to harm you. Determine corrective action or evacuate to a secure location.