Speaker 1: Okay, we're love how this is William Ramsey. Welcome to
Speaker 1: William Ramsey Investigates on Tonight Show. Have a very special guest.
Speaker 1: His name is Robert L. Bryan and he has written
Speaker 1: a book titled Crime Staying Safe, Quick and Easy Ways
Speaker 1: to Avoid becoming a crime Victim. It's very interesting. I
Speaker 1: read through it and took a lot of notes and
Speaker 1: learned quite a few things about how to avoid becoming
Speaker 1: a victim of a crime. This is not mister Brian's
Speaker 1: first book. He has over twenty books, many of them
Speaker 1: on Amazon. There's fictional books titled Missing a Findlani New
Speaker 1: York City Mystery Books, so there's one of five of those.
Speaker 1: There's also Dark Knights, but he's also written in nonfiction.
Speaker 1: One of those nonfiction books is The Last Apostle, an
Speaker 1: unholy alliance has brought New York City to its knees.
Speaker 1: And then there's another one, Seacase, an Unlikely journey from
Speaker 1: a transit cop to Internal Affairs Bureau Squad commander from
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. So maybe we can reference a few of
Speaker 1: those today, but we're again we're going to talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, staying sit avoiding becoming a victim of crimes. So,
Speaker 1: Robert Albern are you there? Yes, awesome, Well, thanks for
Speaker 1: greeing to the interview for people and may not know
Speaker 1: your background. Can you talk about your background and what
Speaker 1: led you to write this book Crime Staying Safety.
Speaker 2: Sure, and first of if it's a pleasure to be here,
Speaker 2: thanks for having me. I've spent my whole life in
Speaker 2: the fields of law enforcement, security, and academia. I'm a
Speaker 2: retired captain from the New York Sate Police Department. I
Speaker 2: spent twenty years on the job. Before that, my first job,
Speaker 2: real job in law enforcement, I was a Board of
Speaker 2: Patrol agent. I spent two years on the California Mexican border.
Speaker 2: I'm currently the chief security officer for a very high
Speaker 2: security New York State government facility, and I also teach.
Speaker 2: I'm an adjunct professor at a local Long Island.
Speaker 1: College where I.
Speaker 2: Teach courses in physical security. So I guess, coming right
Speaker 2: down to it. When I first started writing, one of
Speaker 2: the articles that I had read on subjects to write,
Speaker 2: and what kept coming up over and over again was
Speaker 2: authors should write what they know. And I just felt
Speaker 2: that if I was going to be writing nonfiction, a
Speaker 2: book like this like crime staying safe. This is an
Speaker 2: area that I know my whole life has been involved
Speaker 2: in this subject, right.
Speaker 1: And so you definitely have a knowledgeable background. You include
Speaker 1: that in there in this book. But one of the
Speaker 1: main questions you ask, and a lot of crime victims
Speaker 1: to ask, is why me? So can you elaborate on
Speaker 1: that concept of crime victims?
Speaker 2: Sure, and it's a common question and there is an
Speaker 2: answer to it, because the central premise of the book
Speaker 2: is what is it that a person does, whether they
Speaker 2: do it consciously or unconsciously, what is it that they
Speaker 2: did or didn't do that made them attractive to that
Speaker 2: criminal to make that criminal choose them? Because I don't
Speaker 2: I don't believe there's there's Again, nothing's ever one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: and that's one of the things about crime. There's no
Speaker 2: constants that are one hundred percent. But it is very
Speaker 2: very rare that a victim is chosen randomly. And people
Speaker 2: may dispute that because saying, well, the plenty of times
Speaker 2: the victim, there's not no the perpetrator. That's true, But
Speaker 2: even if it's only a few seconds of thought process,
Speaker 2: there are things that go on in that criminal's mind
Speaker 2: that made them make the selection to victimize that particular
Speaker 2: the person, and it's usually something characteristic about that person
Speaker 2: or something they did or something they didn't do, something
Speaker 2: they showed, something they didn't show. So again it's victimization
Speaker 2: is very much a too primed approach. It involves understanding
Speaker 2: the mindset of the criminal, but it also involves understanding
Speaker 2: the mindset and the actions of the victim.
Speaker 1: Right, So, I mean, I think that's really important is
Speaker 1: that it's both parties and you have a lot of
Speaker 1: research and background into this the different you know, the
Speaker 1: victim and the criminal in your book, but you know
Speaker 1: they talk about different things. You talk about kind of
Speaker 1: rational choice theory and what the criminals looking for. What
Speaker 1: are the criminals looking for in a victim?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's rational. There are many many theories of
Speaker 2: criminal behavior. Some of them I don't and I don't
Speaker 2: want to say waste time, because it's never a waste,
Speaker 2: but there are too many theories that just go out
Speaker 2: of that way to blame the victim. I'm looking at
Speaker 2: primarily at the rational choice theory because that's what makes
Speaker 2: most sense to me, because when a person decides to
Speaker 2: commit a crime, they're making a rational choice. They're looking
Speaker 2: at the entire situation and they're weighing risk versus reward.
Speaker 2: They're saying, what's my risk if I try to break
Speaker 2: into this home? If I try to rob this person?
Speaker 2: What is my risk? What's my chances of getting away
Speaker 2: with it? And also what's the reward? Is there something
Speaker 2: that I can see or I feel is going to
Speaker 2: be worth my while? Is there do I know that
Speaker 2: this person has money? Do I know that there's an
Speaker 2: expensive car that I can get, there's expensive jewelry in
Speaker 2: the home, or the person's carrying some expensive items on them.
Speaker 2: These are all things that the criminal weighs before making
Speaker 2: that rational choice.
Speaker 1: Right, So they're definitely thinking. So the criminal is of
Speaker 1: weighing all of these probabilities before whatever crime. It could
Speaker 1: be burglary, rape, anything, and that's really your targeting probability.
Speaker 1: So how does the victim come out on top in
Speaker 1: the situations where this person is thinking about committing a crime.
Speaker 2: If we're talking about the because I break down the
Speaker 2: book into basically two main categories, the place and the person.
Speaker 2: And with the place, I mean we could you could
Speaker 2: really go on and write book after book after book
Speaker 2: on different types of environments and places. I focus heavily
Speaker 2: on residential home and the crime of burglary, and it's
Speaker 2: with the place like that, it's a matter of hardening targets,
Speaker 2: understanding where your vulnerabilities might lie, and trying to decrease
Speaker 2: those vulnerabilities. There's a concept that runs throughout crime prevention,
Speaker 2: especially when we're talking about issues like burglary septet crime
Speaker 2: prevention through environmental design, where how the built environment can
Speaker 2: either increase or decrease the chances of having a crime occur.
Speaker 2: Things like is the UH is the area or the
Speaker 2: home is there maximum visibility? Or maybe there's all kinds
Speaker 2: of tree, shrubbery bushes that would make it easy for
Speaker 2: a criminal or burglar to hide themselves while they're trying
Speaker 2: to break in UH. Again, it's how the how the
Speaker 2: the the physical environment appeals or doesn't appeal to a
Speaker 2: criminal goes into that rational choice.
Speaker 1: Right, So you can definitely take steps to minimize burglar reaes.
Speaker 1: And also there was it was interesting something I learned
Speaker 1: about this is there was research into how a predator
Speaker 1: or a criminal selects victims and there's certain things you
Speaker 1: can do to minimize your risk. Even walking down the street.
Speaker 2: Is that correct?
Speaker 1: That's correct.
Speaker 2: It was a very I found it a very interesting
Speaker 2: study done a good number of years ago in New
Speaker 2: York City where there was and it was a big study.
Speaker 2: I think there was over one hundred people who were
Speaker 2: a survey. And I say people because you have to
Speaker 2: look at the experts in the field, and it may
Speaker 2: seem weird, but the experts in victimology are the criminals.
Speaker 2: The people are selecting victims, and the researchers studied the
Speaker 2: responses of criminal, violent criminals, by the way, too, people
Speaker 2: have committed robberies, rapes, assaults. And they showed them videos
Speaker 2: of people just walking down Manhattan streets, and what they found,
Speaker 2: they were very fascinated by that. It wasn't their choices.
Speaker 2: They were asking them, by the way, I'm leaning this out,
Speaker 2: asking them point out people who you might be prone
Speaker 2: to say that's a person going to look at as
Speaker 2: a victim, just from seeing them walking in the video.
Speaker 2: And they found that the choices were very consistent and
Speaker 2: it wasn't based on gender, age, race. It was based
Speaker 2: on things like you know what did how was the
Speaker 2: person walking was the person walking with a very kind
Speaker 2: of a weird gate about them. Did they look to
Speaker 2: be exploitable? Were they were they walking like they didn't
Speaker 2: know that where they knew where they were going, that
Speaker 2: they didn't look athletic, they didn't look they weren't walking
Speaker 2: with their shoulders back, they were shuffling their feet, they
Speaker 2: were you know it just there's a term called exploitability.
Speaker 2: People that walk kind of in a very timid fashion,
Speaker 2: looks like they're not aware of their surroundings. They appear
Speaker 2: to be more exploitable as opposed to someone who's walking
Speaker 2: at a fast a steady shoulders back, you know, walking
Speaker 2: the walklets say, making it look like they're very confident
Speaker 2: in what they're doing and where they're going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I found that very interesting. So the criminals were
Speaker 1: taking nonverbal cues or signals from each person and they
Speaker 1: just like it was almost like likening it to the serengetti,
Speaker 1: where you know, they're looking for the weakest member of
Speaker 1: whatever heard that is like the slowest, most distracted. So
Speaker 1: I think that's a warning to everybody, particularly as things
Speaker 1: become more the streets are getting mean or meaner, particularly
Speaker 1: in New York City. It's something to think about. And also,
Speaker 1: like the submissiveness is something that they keyed into as well.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, it again it comes out if a person
Speaker 2: who now there's now again there's a fine line to
Speaker 2: be drawn here because if somebody has a gunpointed to
Speaker 2: their their head and they're being demanded that they candle
Speaker 2: over the wallet, usually the best choice is going to
Speaker 2: be to submit to that and turn over that property
Speaker 2: and then get out of there. But again, but when
Speaker 2: making that choice, somebody who they're see, the criminal is
Speaker 2: making that decision of saying who they think they can
Speaker 2: best control, who they think will submit easily to them,
Speaker 2: and based on these physical characteristics, they're making that choice
Speaker 2: because just like we said, how the the lion or
Speaker 2: whatever wild animal or predator is going to pick the
Speaker 2: weakest or the slowest in the herd. The criminal is
Speaker 2: not looking for the toughest time. They're not looking for
Speaker 2: the who will give me the best battle. They're looking
Speaker 2: for the easiest way for the best reward.
Speaker 1: Right. And I think that's kind of like goes back
Speaker 1: to your targeting. You know, your your rational choice theory
Speaker 1: is like, well, who's this person vulnerable or what's the risk?
Speaker 1: And I mean you also kind of go into not
Speaker 1: just the individual, but the situation. You talk about a
Speaker 1: lot of residential burglaries, but also what to do kind
Speaker 1: of and large scale events or situations that may not
Speaker 1: be ordinary. Can you talk about how to minimize risk
Speaker 1: in those environments that A.
Speaker 2: Lot of that comes down to this term situational awareness,
Speaker 2: which is a very fancy term for just understanding and
Speaker 2: knowing what's going on around you and when you're going.
Speaker 2: It can be difficult when you're going to a one
Speaker 2: off type of event, you're going to a concert, you're
Speaker 2: going to a stadium, a sporting event, you're going to
Speaker 2: some gathering where you've never been before and you don't
Speaker 2: plan on being back there again. It can be difficult,
Speaker 2: but again it's important that you do things like recognize
Speaker 2: first how many people do you understand are supposed to
Speaker 2: be at this event? Have you checked out social media
Speaker 2: beforehand to see is there any buzz about protest taking place?
Speaker 2: Anything like that? Out of the ordinary you are you
Speaker 2: able to get and check out online the layout of
Speaker 2: the location, or once you get there, are you identifying
Speaker 2: where you are, where are your potential exits? Anytime you
Speaker 2: go someplace, you should always identify from where you're standing
Speaker 2: or where you're sitting you should identify the nearest exit
Speaker 2: and then the next one. You should always have this
Speaker 2: mindset of saying, Okay, I'm in my seat. If something
Speaker 2: happened right now and I had to get out of
Speaker 2: here quickly, I would go over there to the left,
Speaker 2: And if there was I was unable to get to there,
Speaker 2: I know I would go to the right to that
Speaker 2: exit I see over there. That should be something that's
Speaker 2: thought out before the crisis happens and you're trying to
Speaker 2: make this decision out of the blue.
Speaker 1: Right, And I mean you think you look back at
Speaker 1: some of these events, whether it's kind of like the
Speaker 1: terrorist attacks in Paris or the shootings in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: like some of the people the situation, they just had
Speaker 1: zero situational awareness. They were not prepped and not in
Speaker 1: the right mind space to you know, effectively respond to
Speaker 1: those situations. And uh so knowing those things out, I
Speaker 1: mean you also talk about kinesics. Can you tell you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about the marine combat profilers use on battlefield.
Speaker 1: I think that's important in some ways just to think
Speaker 1: about when you expound on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's again, there's there's there's like the this is
Speaker 2: kind of like the study of uh, you know, the
Speaker 2: physical relationships between people. I'm not talking about uh you know,
Speaker 2: whether a person is a friend or a close friend
Speaker 2: or a relative, But it's talking about the uh you know,
Speaker 2: the relationship of one person to another physically, how close
Speaker 2: a person is, what type of physical actions a person
Speaker 2: is taking. It's it can tell a lot when you know,
Speaker 2: when you were able to recognize something that might be
Speaker 2: out of the ordinary based on that person's proximity to
Speaker 2: you or other people, and or based on the specific
Speaker 2: actions that a person might be taken. Again, it's it's
Speaker 2: all comes down to being aware of of what's going
Speaker 2: on around.
Speaker 1: You, right. And you also kind of also talk about
Speaker 1: and I think that this is a recent potential now
Speaker 1: that what's kind of happening in the world is that
Speaker 1: we have to recognize situations where there could be terrorism.
Speaker 1: Can you explain what your approach is if somebody's in
Speaker 1: that situation?
Speaker 2: Well, you're right. Unfortunately, it is a fact of life
Speaker 2: that you have to be aware that you know, not
Speaker 2: only do you have to be aware that you could
Speaker 2: be victimized by one single gunman who wants your wallet,
Speaker 2: but you could be victimized by somebody who's looking to
Speaker 2: you know, kill or name as many people as possible.
Speaker 2: And that's why again it's a special important in a
Speaker 2: crowd setting that you understand where you are and you're
Speaker 2: looking for any anomalies taking place, because just having a
Speaker 2: couple of seconds of warning before everybody else does might
Speaker 2: be the difference between life and death. And again, knowing
Speaker 2: the layout, knowing the exits and look, see there's a
Speaker 2: there's a baseline for behavior in any environment. Uh, if
Speaker 2: you're in some type of a restaurant, you know, the
Speaker 2: baseline is normally going to be people who are just
Speaker 2: quietly sitting, eating, drinking, having quiet conversations. If you're at
Speaker 2: a rock concert, the baseline's a little different. There's loud music,
Speaker 2: there's screaming, there's shouting. But if you're at that restaurant
Speaker 2: and they're screaming and shouting, that's an anomaly, that's that's
Speaker 2: not the baseline for normal behavior in that location. So
Speaker 2: understanding what the baseline is for your location, for your environment,
Speaker 2: and reacting to situations that go against that baseline of
Speaker 2: normal behavior and at least preparing yourself for some type
Speaker 2: of an action, whether it's fleeing or whether it's fighting
Speaker 2: or whether it's hiding, is could be crucial, right, And.
Speaker 1: I think you mentioned a Carnegie Mellon study that said
Speaker 1: the more threat is expected, the more likely it is
Speaker 1: to be detected. So if you're expecting it, you can
Speaker 1: detect it. What I mean you also kind of address
Speaker 1: trying to avoid revictimizations, so not just in a burglary,
Speaker 1: but an individual setting. What are your tips on avoiding
Speaker 1: or if somebody experiences a crime, what to do next?
Speaker 2: Well, if you mean to avoid it again.
Speaker 1: Or I mean I think let's see it's yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well that gets into understanding learning from mistakes or
Speaker 2: learning from even if it's not necessarily a mistake, learning
Speaker 2: from what happened, if if it's if it's act, if
Speaker 2: you're victimized from your location, let's say your house was burglarized,
Speaker 2: well then you know And that's something important too, because
Speaker 2: studies have shown that just because you're burglarized once, it
Speaker 2: doesn't mean you're off the hook. There's actually more chance
Speaker 2: that you're going to be burglarized again once you're burglarized
Speaker 2: the first time. So understanding that if it was because
Speaker 2: of the fact that that person got in through a
Speaker 2: weak lock, Well, you got to harden that that environment.
Speaker 2: You got to get a better lock. If if they
Speaker 2: got in because they were you were away for a
Speaker 2: week and you're mail built up there and it showed
Speaker 2: them there was nobody home, then you got to make
Speaker 2: sure that you're showing those signs. You're not showing signs
Speaker 2: of that of that home not being occupied for an
Speaker 2: extended period of time. You know what whatever contributed and
Speaker 2: whatever you think contributed to that crime, whether it be
Speaker 2: physical or whether it be something you didn't do, you
Speaker 2: got to.
Speaker 1: Correct that, right and you actually like to avoid Burley.
Speaker 1: Do you kind of have some advice on kind of
Speaker 1: almost playing the burglar? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you should go around and look and see. Okay,
Speaker 2: if I if I was looking to get in here
Speaker 2: right now and I couldn't help how it would be
Speaker 2: my best way to get in without being detected. Do
Speaker 2: I you know, if I go into my if there's
Speaker 2: a side entrance to a gate next to my house
Speaker 2: and I go into the backyard, do I have a
Speaker 2: fence up right now? That's that's you can't see through
Speaker 2: and nobody could see me from the street. Would I
Speaker 2: be able to work on this window or this door
Speaker 2: where none of my neighbors could see, nobody from the
Speaker 2: street could see. Or basically unless unless somebody came out
Speaker 2: of my house and looked at that specific spot, no
Speaker 2: one would notice me. Or you know, do I have
Speaker 2: lighting that's good? Do I have Do I have fields
Speaker 2: of natural surveillance that that some who would be trying
Speaker 2: to get through a back door or a window, if
Speaker 2: they were going to be there for five to ten minutes,
Speaker 2: they'd be open to anybody that happened to be passing by.
Speaker 2: Or do I have too many shrubs or bushes or
Speaker 2: trees that would block their deir view? Again? Do I
Speaker 2: have am I able to push through to push through
Speaker 2: a crumy lock that I have on my door myself?
Speaker 2: Again understanding you know, basically doing your own security survey
Speaker 2: in LUA where I should point this out too. Many
Speaker 2: many police departments throughout the country have programs crime prevention
Speaker 2: programs where individuals can contact a crime prevention officer or
Speaker 2: a crime prevention unit and they will send an officer
Speaker 2: there that actually will do this survey, this type of
Speaker 2: survey to show you where your vulnerabilities lie.
Speaker 1: Wow, I didn't know that, And like, do you talk
Speaker 1: about like all kinds of things you can do to
Speaker 1: become less vulnerable. You kind of say, like women could
Speaker 1: get a dog. One of the interesting thing was like
Speaker 1: one of the criminals said if he saw a pair
Speaker 1: of construction boots outside of a house, he would just
Speaker 1: keep going if he was a record rapist. So like
Speaker 1: any woman should just put a size thirteen pair of
Speaker 1: shoes in front of their in front of their door,
Speaker 1: just to leave it there. I thought that was interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean anything that that that's giving anything that
Speaker 2: is giving a signal that there may be occupancy. And
Speaker 2: in this case, if they're if they're showing that, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean you could go crazy with this hang boxing
Speaker 2: gloves outside or something. Uh you know, but but uh,
Speaker 2: you know the idea of showing occupancy, whether it be
Speaker 2: with boots like that, or whether it be with some
Speaker 2: type of timer for lights going on and off or
Speaker 2: the timer for the TV going on and so that
Speaker 2: there's noise coming from inside, because that again, that gets
Speaker 2: back to the rational choice. A burglar doesn't want to
Speaker 2: incal burglar. If somebody's looking to attack somebody, that's a
Speaker 2: different story. But a burglar is not to find someone
Speaker 2: in there that's a the terrent if they think that
Speaker 2: somebody is actually in the.
Speaker 1: Residence, right, and you actually advocate for being like one
Speaker 1: room in the house or the place to be kind
Speaker 1: of a safe safe room, like just in case, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that there's there's actually I mean there's there's a
Speaker 2: formal science behind that, and unfortunately a lot of people
Speaker 2: wouldn't have the means. I mean, if you have a
Speaker 2: large house that's uh, you know, almost considered like a mansion,
Speaker 2: I mean, you could actually devote a room. And there's
Speaker 2: some of them on some of these homes are designed
Speaker 2: that all right, here's your here's your three or four
Speaker 2: or five bedrooms, here's your living room, and by the way,
Speaker 2: here's your safe room. This is this is exclusively designed
Speaker 2: for that where if someone was in your house, you
Speaker 2: running here and you lock that door and you're safe
Speaker 2: in there. But unless you have the means for something
Speaker 2: like that, again, knowing that you know you have some
Speaker 2: place in your house that would probably be the best
Speaker 2: place for you to secure yourself. Or again, just like
Speaker 2: at the event, if you know that someone is coming
Speaker 2: in through your side window, that you know the best
Speaker 2: thing for you is to go out the front door
Speaker 2: or the back door, you know, knowing where you're gonna
Speaker 2: go in in the event that that that that situation
Speaker 2: presents itself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like the the more vulnerable victims aren't
Speaker 1: aware and they're not like prepped to move into action.
Speaker 1: It seems like that's a common theme in all of
Speaker 1: those and all whether it's a burglary or rape. Like
Speaker 1: I think he wrote that even some women who have
Speaker 1: a tendency or who I think it was the the
Speaker 1: stats where the woman couldn't or the women who were
Speaker 1: raped did not respond to nonverbal communication as the ones
Speaker 1: who who weren't so like they didn't pick up on cues.
Speaker 2: Correct and and you know, and again and some of
Speaker 2: these things, you know, be very difficult practice on. But
Speaker 2: then but there are some things that just in general
Speaker 2: victimization where you started mentioning before, it's very important because
Speaker 2: many times the reason why people do get attacked by surprise,
Speaker 2: people do get burglarized successfully is because the events never
Speaker 2: happened before, and it's really not something that is within
Speaker 2: a person's their own personal realm of possibility. They don't
Speaker 2: think this is going to happen, So when they're walking
Speaker 2: down the street, and they might actually pick up some
Speaker 2: kind of cues regarding the actions of somebody who's walking
Speaker 2: parallel across the street with them, or coming towards them,
Speaker 2: or seems to be following behind them. Because of the
Speaker 2: fact that that person might be a predator is the
Speaker 2: furthest thing from their mind and has never happened before.
Speaker 2: They don't plan for that. They don't think about, oh,
Speaker 2: what am I going to do now if this person
Speaker 2: does turn out to be somebody who has bad intentions
Speaker 2: for me?
Speaker 1: Right, and then then they're you know, they get to
Speaker 1: the point where they have to ask the question why me?
Speaker 1: But a lot of that prethinking before you become a victim,
Speaker 1: I think is vitally important. What would be your advice
Speaker 1: for kind of today's situation considering kind of uh, maybe
Speaker 1: the breakdown of policing is not as as you know,
Speaker 1: firm maybe as was in the past, and there seems
Speaker 1: to be more criminality and urban environments. What are your
Speaker 1: what's your outlook or advice?
Speaker 2: My advice is to always stay aware. Again, if there
Speaker 2: was probably the most important, let's say, theme I think
Speaker 2: that I have in the book is this concept of
Speaker 2: situational awareness of always knowing what's going on around you.
Speaker 2: You know, being aware, like I said, of a potential
Speaker 2: threat even seconds before you know it occurs, can be
Speaker 2: can be crucial. And then observation skills with that of
Speaker 2: a important observing as much as possible and practicing observation skills.
Speaker 2: It's you know, understanding there's a There's another concept that
Speaker 2: works against a person. That's called inattentional blindness, where it's
Speaker 2: a phenomenon where you could be you could have something
Speaker 2: or someone, a scene could be completely within within your
Speaker 2: field of view, but your brain doesn't really process it,
Speaker 2: you don't really see it, and it can be and
Speaker 2: that has to do it because it's it's usually such
Speaker 2: an unexpected event that that works against in the field
Speaker 2: like law enforcement and security, because someone's not expecting someone
Speaker 2: to attack their facility. That many times the threat is
Speaker 2: not even seen until the attack occurs or the threatening
Speaker 2: object is is actually discovered. So again, understanding that there
Speaker 2: are limits that a lot of times people play on
Speaker 2: themselves and repetition and planning, even if it's just mental preparation,
Speaker 2: even if it's just thinking about you know, I got
Speaker 2: to be aware of the you know, potential problems going
Speaker 2: out at night at this location. I'm thinking about what
Speaker 2: potentially could happen and what I would do, what actions
Speaker 2: I would take.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it seems like you can just see so
Speaker 1: many terrible stories about people making mistakes like drinking a
Speaker 1: you know, mickey at a bar, or getting into the
Speaker 1: wrong uber and he just goes back to that same thing.
Speaker 1: They're not situationally aware, they don't expect so I think
Speaker 1: if they particularly if they read your book, they can
Speaker 1: learn all these instances where they should be more aware.
Speaker 1: They should be making decisions that, you know, not go
Speaker 1: the same route at the same time every night and
Speaker 1: kind of mix things up. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of little things that add up that make you less
Speaker 1: vulnerable as a victim. Is there anything I miss or
Speaker 1: anything you'd like to add before we wrap up the interview.
Speaker 2: No, I think the only thing I would say in
Speaker 2: caution is that it's all about also about playing percentages.
Speaker 2: You know, you don't want to get people the wrong idea.
Speaker 2: You can be as situationally aware and as alert and
Speaker 2: observant as is humanly possible, and you could still end
Speaker 2: up being a victim. But it's again, it's playing percentages.
Speaker 2: You want to make it as least likely as possible
Speaker 2: that you're going to have a problem. And there are
Speaker 2: these things that you can do that will push those
Speaker 2: percentages into your favor in your.
Speaker 1: Favor right, And do you have social media or working
Speaker 1: people reach out to you email or website?
Speaker 2: They could reach out to me at I do have
Speaker 2: on Facebook. I have a page Robert Brian Author. I
Speaker 2: also have my own Facebook that's just as Robert L.
Speaker 2: Brian and I have an Amazon page. They could reach
Speaker 2: out with me, which again, if they just use Robert L. Brian,
Speaker 2: they'd be able to get to my page on on Amazon.
Speaker 1: And is that the best place to buy your books
Speaker 1: is Amazon?
Speaker 2: Amazon?
Speaker 1: And uh again, the title of the book is Crime
Speaker 1: Staying Safe, Quick and Easy Ways to Avoid becoming a
Speaker 1: crime victim by Robert L. Bryant. Robert Brant, thank you.
Speaker 2: So much, Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: All Right, that's done. Yeah, that was great