Detroit Situational Awareness Campaign Teaches Safe Phone Use To Prevent Crime

Quick: Are you holding your cell phone right now? No cheating! Did you put your phone down, guiltily paying more attention? A lot of us are glued to our phones – but this can become dangerous when you’re outside. Constantly being on your phone when you’re in public spaces dramatically increases your risk of danger. Now it’s time to stop and look up!

Look up from your phone with the help of Safe Sense. Check them out today at https://www.safesense.org

Criminal prevention through situational awareness

The Detroit-based Safe Sense consultancy is running a National Cell Phone “Look Up Challenge” to reduce assaults triggered by irresponsible cellphone use.

Throughout the fall of 2024, the campaign will seek to empower individuals to develop better situational awareness and limit cellphone use while outside. Safe Sense CEO Sharlene Burris explains the dangers of “distracted” walking, shopping, sitting at the bus stop, or any other activity while using a mobile phone. Excessive cellphone use, especially in public, increases the risk of danger, whether that’s accidentally falling or becoming a victim of theft.

“There’s a dire need in society, especially in the fall when life seems to get busier with people fully back to work and kids back to school, for people to be more responsible with their cell phone use,” Burris says. “That’s why I’ve launched the Look Up Challenge- so that cell phone users can be as smart as their phones!” She adds.

Responsible cellphone use

Burris details the three easy steps in this challenge.

1. Whenever you’re outside your home and on your phone, count 1-2-3-4-5. (Don’t look down at your phone for longer than 5 seconds at a time!)
2. Then, look up and look around.
3. Check your surroundings; ask yourself: Has anything changed? Who's near me? Has a vehicle pulled up beside me? Is there something potentially dangerous brewing nearby?

"The lack of safety situational awareness makes it easier for criminals to target and attack their victims; people who are doing everyday things, like walking in parking lots to and from their cars while engaged with their cell phones, are far more vulnerable to robbery, theft, or physical assaults than those who are alert and aware of their surroundings," Burris notes.

Smart use of smartphones

Developed to make people aware of why they need to become more intentional about their cell phone use, and how to do so, Burris believes the “Look Up Challenge” is simple to understand and make into a habit that will easily become second nature.

Safe Sense is an informational resource and hands-on consulting firm that teaches individuals – from K-12 and college students to employees, field service workers, educators, and senior citizens – field-tested core personal safety principles, activities, and real-time applications rooted in common sense, situational awareness, and environmental mindfulness.

As a child growing up in Detroit, while serving in the U.S. Army, and in her former roles as an adjunct self-defense trainer and a parole/probation manager for the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), Sharlene Burris developed her safety tips, techniques, tactics, and expertise quite organically throughout her life.

Safe Sense has published two Safety Guides: Safe Sense Field Service Safety Guide – Parole/Probation Officers Edition and Safe Sense Workplace Safety Guide – with more to follow. Both books are available for purchase through the Safe Sense website.

Go to https://safesense.org/wsg.html so you can learn more.