The Threat Assessment

Right after we move into a new place and I run through the 35 questions about our new home, I then proceed to conduct a simple threat assessment.  Here's what it entails:

• First, make sure there are no threats inside your home, using the list above.
• Next, do a simple walk around your neighborhood and maybe talk to a few of the neighbors and determine if there are any threats in your neighborhood (this can be anything from living right next to a chemical plant to hearing the neighbors fight every night to seeing graffiti repeatedly in your neighborhood).
• You can also check and see what kind of threat assessment tools are provided by your local police department, such as this, this, and this.
• I also sign up for alerts (either via text messages, email, or FaceBook) from the local fire department, department of emergency management, and Nixle for my area.
• Finally, I Google "threat analysis" for my city and state and see what other work is being done in this area that can shed some light on current threats to my area such as this, this, and this.

By conducting a threat assessment of your local area, you will be well positioned to plan for situations that are most likely to affect you.  This will allow you to fine-tune the contents of your BOB, take pre-emptive action towards threats if necessary, and plan for disasters that are more than likely to happen (ie: you don't want to spend your time planning for a tornado if the area you live in is much more likely to be hit by an earthquake, etc).