Situational awareness isn’t about being paranoid. It’s about staying present, being prepared, and moving through the world with confidence.

Still, a lot of people, often without realizing it, develop habits that can make them more vulnerable, especially in transitional spaces like parking lots, stairwells, or elevators.

The good news? These are simple mistakes, and with a few small changes, they’re easy to fix, and could even save your life.

Mistake #1: Being Distracted or Looking Down

We’ve all done it, scrolling through our phones, digging through our bags, fumbling for keys.

But here’s what a predator sees:
“She’s not paying attention. She won’t see me coming.”

Distraction is a green light for someone looking to take advantage. When your eyes are down and your mind is elsewhere, you can’t spot a threat, or avoid it.

How to Fix It:

Keep your head up and stay alert.
Put the phone away when you’re walking.
Get your keys or access card out before you step outside.
Walk with purpose...

When you hear the word interrogation, you might picture a dimly lit room, a one-way mirror, and a detective sliding into the “Good Cop” role to break someone down.

That’s old-school thinking.

Today’s investigations require more—something smarter, more ethical, and backed by behavior science.

It’s time to move beyond outdated tactics and start having Effective Investigative Conversations.

Why the Reid Technique Doesn’t Hold Up Anymore

For years, the Reid Technique set the standard for interviews in the U.S. It relies on:

• Accusatory tactics
  
• Pressuring the subject through manipulation
  
• Isolating them from support
  
• Asking leading questions designed to get confessions
  

But here’s the issue:

• It can lead to false confessions
  
• It damages trust with the subject
  
• It focuses more on confessions than truth
  
• It doesn’t hold up well under legal or ethical scrutiny
  

In today’s environment—with body cams, tighter HR policies, and growing legal risk—manipulative tactics aren’t just outd...

When people think of executive protection (EP), they often picture sleek suits, tinted SUVs, and teams trained to handle high-speed getaways or worst-case scenarios. But in reality, EP doesn’t usually fall short in moments of action—it breaks down well before that point.

The truth is: executive protection often fails during the planning phase, not when a threat shows up.

Yes, firearms and evasive driving are important tools, but they’re reactive by nature. The best protection work ensures those tools never need to be used.

The Issue: Too Much Emphasis on Tactical Skills

Many protection teams dedicate the majority of their time, sometimes as much as 80%, to tactical training: shooting drills, convoy driving, and physical security maneuvers.

These are valuable skills, but they’re not what typically determines the success or failure of an assignment.

In most cases, it’s smart planning and risk mitigation that prevent problems from ever surfacing.

An effective protection professiona...

When most people think about predators, they picture random attacks—sudden, violent, and impossible to predict.

But the reality? It’s more disturbing… and far more empowering.

Because predators don’t act on impulse.
They watch.
They study.
They test boundaries.
They choose their moment.

Just like predators in the wild, their behavior follows patterns, and if you know what to look for, you can often spot them before they make a move.

What Predators Look For

Whether it’s a crowded shopping center, a quiet parking garage, or a busy online platform, predators consistently look for three key things before making a move:

1. The Right Location

Predators gravitate toward transitional spaces—areas where people are on the move, distracted, and not paying close attention:

• Parking lots
  
• Elevators
  
• Stairwells
  
• Gas stations
  
• Building entrances
  

These places offer two major advantages: low awareness and quick exit routes.

They’re public, but not protected. Visible, but not secure. In oth...

In the executive protection world, readiness is measured not just in reaction time or tactical prowess, but in cognitive sharpness and emotional intelligence. At The Integris Solution, we prepare protection professionals for more than physical confrontation. We train the mind to be resilient, perceptive, and deeply human.

The Threat of Tech Dependence

But in an age where our devices are always within reach, we risk outsourcing essential human abilities to technology. This quiet shift has consequences, especially for those tasked with keeping others safe.

1. Memory: A Safety Mechanism

Once, we had to memorise routes, structural layouts, background profiles, escape plans. Today, GPS handles navigation, other tools scan for threats, and databases recall client details. Useful? Yes. But what happens when those systems fail?

The phenomenon known as digital amnesia (Kaspersky Lab, 2015) shows that people are less likely to retain information they believe will be stored elsewhere. T...

Every day, people around the world navigate environments where safety feels uncertain and intuition is often second-guessed.

A late-night walk to your car.
A jog through your neighborhood park.
An elevator ride with a stranger.

We know the statistics — but more than that, we feel the reality. Over 90% of women report feeling unsafe in everyday situations. That feeling isn't irrational. It's not paranoia. It's a result of living in a world that teaches women to be cautious, but rarely equips them to be confident.

The advice we’re given is mostly reactive:
Carry this. Don’t go there. Text someone when you arrive.

But none of that teaches us how to see danger before it sees us.

At Integris, we saw a glaring gap: women were being told to “stay safe,” but not shown how to understand people, environments, and intent — the exact skills used by those trained in protection, intelligence, and behavioral science.

So, we decided to change that.

Living in Any Kind Of Fear Is Not Living Ful...

Memory is a skill that is vital to the protection industry. However, knowing this and being able to apply it are two very different things. Here's how for the EP worker looking to expand their memory abilities.

The first thing I recommend is to start simple. Read about the memory and how it works in the brain. This is an essential part of applying memory skills. A simple overview would include:

Memories work via storage systems in the brain. When we form new memories, we automatically encode them in different places. The memory begins with this encoding process. Any sensory process, such as sight, sound, smell, etc, can bring this about. The memories then go into storage in working, short-term, or long-term memories. Working memory is the shortest span of memory storage, lasting only for a few seconds. Short-term memory lasts slightly longer, and long-term memory lasts the longest period. Memories are also divided into episodic and semantic memories within the long-term memory area. ...

One area that is lacking in skills taught for the executive protection field is memory. Several things I have come across mention memory only in passing or even mention instead to “take notes” because no one has a perfect memory. To an extent no, no one has a perfect memory. However, that shouldn’t negate the importance of training one’s memory skills to match the level of every aspect trained in this field.

I’ll put this into perspective for those who might not see its importance. Imagine that you are on a protection detail of some sort, you see a suspicious character that needs keeping an eye on. However, said suspicious character moves out of your line of view, and now you have to communicate with your colleagues what the character looks like and why you pegged them as suspicious. But… you can’t remember what color shirt he wore, what his face looked like, or if he appeared to have a weapon. It was too instinctual to be aware of the main details for others to use. These memory laps...

Surveillance for ALL : P.O.L.A.R

Surveillance and counter-surveillance represent a perpetual cat-and-mouse game, each side constantly evolving tactics and technology. Surveillance, the systematic observation of individuals or groups, involves a multifaceted approach. Physical surveillance relies on direct observation, while technical surveillance employs electronic devices to gather information. Open-source intelligence, drawing from publicly available data, completes the surveillance toolkit.

In the complex and ever-evolving landscape of executive protection, possessing heightened situational awareness is paramount. The ability to rapidly assess and comprehend one's surroundings can be the difference between averting a threat and reacting to it. This is where the POLAR method, focusing on People, Objects, Locations, Actions, and Reasoning, emerges as a game-changer.

Counter-surveillance is the defensive counterpart, designed to detect and deter surveillance efforts. This involves a...

If we all do it, it would be better, right?

Organizations can no longer afford to be reactive. Gone are the days of scrambling to contain a breach of some sort after it's happened. The key to staying ahead of the curve lies in fostering a proactive culture of security awareness, where everyone within the organization plays a vital role in protecting valuable data and assets.

This shift requires a multi-pronged approach. 

1. Developing Critical Thinking Skills

Cyber attackers rely on human vulnerabilities. Phishing emails often rely on emotional triggers or a sense of urgency to bypass our initial skepticism. Equipping employees with critical thinking skills allows them to scrutinize information and identify potential red flags. This can involve training them to:

• Question the sender: Is the email address legitimate? Does it match the sender's name?
• Examine the urgency: Are threats or deadlines used to create pressure?
• Verify links and attachments: Don't click on unfamiliar link...