This article is a brief discussion about moving about inside rooms, or around buildings, when you, as a civilian, suspect that there may be hostile intruders lurking about.
It is written from a relative beginner’s point of view, after attending a few courses, run by far more experienced instructors.
Different Objectives for Civilians
One of the first things that struck me is most of the techniques and tactics we were taught were those used by the police or military. Where the objective was to enter buildings, rooms or move around buildings in coordinated action against criminals, or other opposing forces.
In these scenarios the objectives of the police or military is to actively enter those buildings or rooms with the intention of arresting a suspect, or conducting a search, or engaging opposing forces. These objectives are all essentially aggressive in nature. Where tactics used often rely on speed of entry, violence of action and overwhelming numbers of security officers flooding the zone, to overcome armed opponents.
However, as a civilian, you are unlikely to have those sorts of objectives. Your objectives are legally limited to being defensive in nature.
The more probable reason why you, as a civilian, might feel the need to enter rooms, or move about inside of buildings, or around buildings, when you suspect there might be dangerous intruders lurking around, is to perhaps respond to an intruder alarm going off at your home? Or if you feel that you need to defend your family from imminent criminal attack. Or something along those lines.
Which is a subtle yet important difference.
The tactics used by the police and military are designed to enable them to enter against possible armed opposition, because that is what they HAVE to do, in order to do their job.
As a civilian, your objectives are firstly to defend yourself and your family, secondly to survive and lastly to protect your property. For example, you don’t necessarily have to enter a room against armed assailants and arrest them, if you don’t have to, to achieve those objectives.
In addition, both the police and military rely on very well trained and suitably equipped teams, to do this work. But you as a civilian are in all likelihood going to be faced with dealing with the problem on your own, at least in the first few minutes or hours, until some sort of help arrives.
For this reason, some of the tactics that are taught may not be completely replicable, without some extra adaption?
Just something to keep in mind.
Rule No. 1: When You are Armed, Don’t Shoot the Wrong Person
If you are armed, and moving around the rooms in your house, trying to find a potential intruder, or trying to gather the rest of your family, in a situation where you suspect there are criminals who have bad intentions in the house, or property, your biggest single risk is briefly glimpsing a person, somewhere in that setting!
The problem is you will probably in a highly stressed, adrenalised state. Looking for potential “bad guys”. From a firearm perspective, you are looking for potential targets. And now you have just found one!
For this reason, we STRONGLY suggest, that when you set out on that endeavour, you do NOT set out with the objective to “find a bad guy”, but instead your top of mind objective should be to “NOT SHOOT THE WRONG PERSON”!
This cannot be stressed enough!
Because if you set out with a particular objective, you will tend to enact that as soon as the conditions seem to have been met! So any dimly lit person seen will tend to become a valid target in your mind, if your objective was to find targets, and thus your first impulse will be to shoot.
While if your objective is to NOT SHOOT THE WRONG PERSON, well then your first impulse should be to MAKE SURE you are not shooting the wrong person!
The Four Rules of Gun Safety always apply, especially in these circumstances, so keep your finger off the trigger until you have positively identified a definite threat to your life, and you have made the decision that you have to shoot. And then remember that you are responsible for what happens to every bullet you fire – so make sure no innocent people get hurt!
A corollary to this point, is don’t assume that that any response team coming to “rescue” you, or your family, are not going shoot first and ask questions later, when they glimpse you, or your family, in the same way, as they move around your property or premises. They are human like the rest of us and can make the same mistakes. So take the necessary precautions of not exposing yourself unnecessarily, before making very sure any “rescuers” have acknowledged they do not see you as a potential threat.
The Danger of Fatal Funnels
The concept of a “fatal funnel” is important to understand, because it governs a lot of the tactics and techniques needed for moving within and around buildings, when you suspect violent intruders are present.
As we move about within buildings, or around them, the structure of those buildings tends to force us through various doors, along various passage ways, or around specific blind corners, if we want to get from A to B, as it were.
Assailants will naturally use those choke points to ambush you.
This is why those spaces are called “fatal funnels”, because the layout of the building tends to “funnel” our movements into small/narrow spaces which are predictable to any assailant, who can wait and watch for any sign of your approach, and then ambush you as you enter the “funnel”, with frequently “fatal” results!
Examples of fatal funnels in most buildings are:
- Entering any doorways
- Walking down narrow passages
- Entering gates
- Constrained pathways or alleyways on the outside of the building
- Staircases and landings
- Walking past windows
- Walking past doors
- Walking around blind corners
The key thing to realise is, the likelihood of being shot or attacked is highest within a fatal funnel – that is how it got that name. Thus you do not want to just enter any fatal funnel, without making every effort to ensure that it is safe to do so first, from the outside, and preferably from behind cover (which will stop bullets). And once you do enter, do so quickly, with the intention of getting through as quickly as possible, do not linger in the danger zone.
If you have to move across the opening of a fatal funnel (moving past a doorway, window etc), then you need to do it in such a way that you do that in ideally one very quick step, from one side to the other.
NEVER simply stand in the fatal funnel, completely exposed as you do so, without first checking that it is safe to do so! So never stand in the open in front of a door, or window, or gate, or entrance to a narrow passage etc, without properly scanning for threats from behind cover first.
You either stay behind cover, on the threshold and do not enter, until you have taken every precaution to check that it’s safe to enter, or if you are moving across the fatal funnel opening, you quickly step across the opening, from one side to the other, again after first checking as carefully as you can that it is safe to do so.
This is the first principle to learn.
Stay Behind Cover as Much as Possible, Exposing Yourself as Little as Possible
One of the benefits of South African building styles, is most walls are made of bricks, which will generally stop most “normal” calibre bullets, as opposed to dry walling, which will not.
So in most cases, one can use walls as cover (protection against bullets fired at you), as you move around, or within buildings.
Ideally, you want to move quickly from one position of cover, to another, but only after carefully scanning the area you have to move through, for any possible threats.
You need to learn how to scan areas from behind cover, without exposing more of yourself than absolutely necessary.
For example, before entering any room, or walking around any blind corner, you need to keep your body behind cover and then very carefully and systematically scan into the room, or around the corner, to try establish whether you can proceed through that fatal funnel.
Slicing the Pie
As a civilian, who does not have a large aggressive, well trained and equipped team to help you, the best technique to adopt in this regard is what is known as “Slicing the Pie”.
Slicing the Pie is a technique in which you approach a fatal funnel such as a doorway obliquely, by moving along the wall on the outside, without standing in front of the door directly. If necessary, you may have to open the door, again without standing directly in front of it. And then starting with a very narrow oblique angle, peer into the room from the outside, while keeping the rest of your body out of view behind the edge of the door frame. Your goal is to carefully check each slice of view, to try establish if you can see any intruders lurking within the room, without exposing yourself to the rest of the room, which you cannot yet see. Once you are sure that that your slice of view is clear, then steadily increase your slice of view angle into the room (hence the name of the technique), until you have scanned as much of the room as you can from the outside, without entering the room.
If there is an assailant in the room, within view from the door – then at the point you see them, you should still have most of your body behind the edge of the door frame and only hopefully the corner of your eye exposed, as you peek around the corner, which gives you the best chance of seeing the assailant without exposing yourself to being shot or attacked.
In this way, you systematically search for any threat, from the outside of each fatal funnel, before entering that funnel, as best you can.
You would do the same thing approaching a blind corner, or when walking past a window, or going down a narrow alley etc.
However, there is only so much that you can see as you peer around the edge of the door frame from the outside. Apart from furniture etc blocking your view into the room, there are always dead spots along the inside walls, that you cannot see from the outside, which can only be seen if you stick your head right through the door.
The Button Hook Technique
Policing and military room entry tactics have evolved what is called the “Button Hook” technique for clearing the dead space along the inside walls which you cannot see from outside the door. In the example of a centre fed door, this essentially requires two people simultaneously looking around the edge of each side of the door frame, into each dead space on either side, along the walls inside the door. Two people are required because, if only one person does that, the back of his head is exposed to the side he is not looking. So two people, each looking in different directions simultaneously, provide some protection to each other, where they each literally cover the other’s back.
However, as a civilian, if it is necessary for you to enter the room, but without a team there to back you up, you will have to adapt the technique. But remember, doing this alone is extremely risky – which is why house clearing on your own is not recommended unless it is absolutely necessary and you have no other choice.
The technique can be adapted into what might be called the “peekaboo” approach.
Being alone, you will have to choose a direction to look, which you think might be the most likely side for any assailant to be hiding, based on your knowledge of the room interior, for example. And then after positioning yourself right against that side of the door frame, but still behind cover from the point of view of anyone lurking in that dead space inside the room, very quickly poke your head in and around the edge of the door to scan that dead space along the inside wall, before withdrawing again. The back of your head will be unavoidably exposed to the dead space, behind you, in the other direction. The best you can do to mitigate that risk is to do the movement very quickly, so that your head is exposed for only a split second. But be prepared for a violent reaction from either direction as you do so.
And then, depending on the layout of the room interior, you may have to do the same thing looking in the other direction as well. Which is hardly ideal, but you will have to do that if you need to enter that room without just walking into a potential ambush.
Don’t Move into Uncleared Space Until you have Properly Scanned for Threats
The entire point of all these house clearing techniques is to avoid simply blundering into a bad guy, or walking into an ambush laid by bad guys, as you move about inside, or around a building, with potentially serious, or even fatal consequences. Which unfortunately happens too often.
So one needs to divide up the areas you are moving through, into “cleared” spaces which you have scanned for intruders, and are confident that those areas are free from threats, vs “uncleared” areas which you have not yet scanned for potential threats.
As far as practically possible, given your circumstances at the time, the principle is that you should not simply move into any uncleared area, without first making your best effort to determine whether anyone dangerous is lurking there, using the techniques described above.
As an aside – note that security cameras which cover all the relevant choke points around your house, help tremendously in this regard, allowing you to scan all those spaces without even having to go there. You can potentially find the intruder/s using your cameras without being exposed to attack at all.
Don’t go into Uncleared Space if you Don’t Have to
Many experienced security officers warn that trying to clear your own home or property on your own, without a well trained team to support you, is a very high risk activity.
So in the event that you suspect that there are potentially bad guys on your property, or inside your house, and you are on your own, you should restrict your movements to those that you deem absolutely necessary.
So if you don’t have to go into some space in which bad guys might be lurking, and you cannot easily tell if it is safe to do so, then why do it? Is there is an overriding compelling reason to take that risk? Just another thing to consider.
Don’t Assume Space which You have Previously Cleared, is still Clear
If you previously successfully scanned an area for threats and then moved through that area safely, one should not assume that it remains “clear”.
Bad guys could have moved in after you left, or perhaps were hidden in a cupboard or something, which you didn’t see or realise.
The general principle is, if you moved out of an area which you have previously deemed to be “clear”, and have lost sight of what is happening there, then that area can longer be simply assumed to have remained clear.
You would be best advised to treat it as if is uncleared again, if you have to move back through that area.
Applying Our Principles of Home Security, will Significantly Reduce the Risk of Needing to Clear Your Home in the First Place
In our Basic Principles of Home Security, we set out a consistent framework of how to go about developing a complete home security system, which if adopted fully, will dramatically improve your safety within your own home, as well as your ability to withstand even determined criminal attacks.
We strongly recommend that you adopt those principles and implement them within your home and property.
Some of the benefits one could expect are:
- You could be alerted to intruders the moment they enter your property, while they still have multiple barriers to penetrate, before they can reach you or your family. In that case the intruders have the unappealing choice of continuing to try penetrate the barriers they still face, with the knowledge that a potentially violent response is imminent, or alternatively, simply abort their attempted attack and go somewhere else.
- You could have a well thought out camera system covering all choke points of your home, allowing you to scan those areas for intruders without having to physically go there and expose yourself to attack.
- You could have automated lighting which comes on in key areas, the moment the alarm goes off, thus making it much easier to scan for intruders in those areas, removing the ability of bad guys to lurk in the darkness unseen.
- You could design your barriers in layers, in such a way as to enable you to respond to any intrusions, without becoming directly exposed to the attackers who have not yet penetrated the inner layers of your defence.
- You could use the concept of “fatal funnels” against any intruders, by constraining their movements into narrow passage ways etc, where they could be more easily dealt with, and with less risk to yourself or your response team.
While the exact details of any such Home Security Design would vary from property to property, as well as family to family, if you combine the fairly simple principles into a comprehensive, well designed system, any number of different effective ways could be devised which significantly reduce the need for you to have to stumble around your own or property, looking for potentially dangerous intruders, on your own – with all the risk that entails.
