What Can a Screech Alarm Actually Do?
This post is about conflict management | personal safety | dynamis training. Using a personal safety “screech”-type alarm might be useful as part of an overall escape strategy in Lone Worker Protection. But it shouldn’t be a psychological crutch.
What is the real utility of the siren on a screech alarm? Let’s break down the four potential purposes:
- To tell people that you are in trouble and need help?
- To cause the bad-guy pain from the high volume of the alarm?
- To call attention to the event which is taking place?
- To distract the bad-guy?
Screech alarms are my least-favourite personal safety risk-control measure — and here’s why.
The Bystander Apathy Problem
Even if other people hear a loud alarm sound, there is no guarantee whatsoever that they will investigate the origin of the noise. Perhaps they will dismiss the sound as yet another car alarm being activated by a gust of wind.
If they do investigate, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will then decide to get involved if they find a violent confrontation at the origin of the noise. Most people I have asked this question will tell me that they would certainly hesitate to intervene in anything that looked like a domestic dispute between a man and a woman, for example.
Bystander apathy means that very frequently people hesitate — and often fail to intervene at all. In Social Psychology, this phenomenon is known as the Bystander Effect, or the Genovese Effect. Sociologists have been studying it for many years, and it is named after a famous case in New York.
The Kitty Genovese Case
Of 38 witnesses who heard or saw some part of the attack, not one took action to help her. By the time the police were eventually called, she was dead.
On Friday 13 March 1964, 28-year-old Catherine Genovese was arriving home in her built-up neighbourhood from a late night shift as a bar manager in Queens, New York. She was suddenly attacked with a knife by a man named Winston Moseley. She screamed aloud: “Oh my God, I’ve been stabbed! Please help me!”
Moseley saw lights come on in nearby apartments. He knew people were watching, so he ran off, leaving Catherine to drag herself into a doorway. She lay there bleeding but still alive – she could have survived at this point.
Her attacker decided to return to finish off what he’d started because, as he later said in court: “It didn’t seem like anyone was going to stop me!” Although badly weakened by now, she again screamed for help.
Of 38 witnesses who heard or saw some part of the attack — which took place over about half an hour in total — not one took action to help her. By the time the police were eventually called, she was dead.
💡 Bystander apathy is normal: Libraries full of research since this horrific crime have shown that the behaviour of the 38 witnesses is actually quite normal in the context in which they found themselves. Don’t banks your safety on someone else’s courage.
Loud Noises Won’t Stop a Determined Attacker
If you’ve read this far, then I hope you will agree with the following statement: if the bad-guy has gotten this far into a violent assault on you, then loud noises are unlikely to make him go away.
If he is sufficiently aroused and adrenalised, it is even possible that he won’t really hear or register the screeching alarm. In any case, clinging to a screeching alarm and hoping for the best is a less-optimal strategy — you need to be moving.
The Case for Calling Attention
In all fairness to the screech alarm, calling people’s attention is good. With few exceptions, there isn’t a bad-guy you are likely to meet who wants other people watching, listening, or intervening while he does his thing. He wants privacy. He wants to be away from prying eyes. He wants autonomy during the incident.
Your bad-guy may decide to abort his plan and run away if he thinks that there is too much attention coming his way. But this should not be your prime strategy.
✅ Your next step: Don’t rely on a screech alarm as your only plan. If the attention it draws doesn’t stop the attacker, you need a more robust backup. Fast-forward to our chapters on Reasonable Force and Behavioural Personal Safety to learn what may be next.
Conflict Management | Personal Safety | Dynamis Training: About the Author
Gerard O’Dea is a professional violence-management trainer and consultant who has been active in personal safety training since 2006. He regularly delivers training to local authority, housing organisation and other community-based staff teams who work with sometimes difficult, distressed or dangerous members of the public.
His approach to lone-worker training is pragmatic, functional and based on a keen analysis of the issues in the real world of community working. Gerard published “Lone Worker Personal Safety: A Guidebook for Health and Social Care Staff” (on Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle) in 2014.
For more information please visit: www.dynamis.training/lone-worker-personal-safety/
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