Noise Makers for Personal Safety

Noise-making personal safety alarms emit a loud, shrieking alarm when activated. Personal safety alarms are a modern version of the Radar Alarms that first emerged in the early 1970s. One promotional ad claimed, “You don’t need a gun to save your life if you carry a shrieker in your purse or pocket!” This is not a realistic claim for personal safety.

In the 1990s, these items gained some popularity and were the size of a pager or small cell phone, activated by a pull cord. Technology has improved, and some devices are now in the shape of a watch, pendant, or keychain, requiring only the press of a button. Many vehicles have a key fob that also activates the vehicle’s alarm when the emergency button is pressed.

Generally, these electronic devices emit loud, ear-piercing noises, and some also feature a flashing strobe light. However, the noise is most bothersome in small, enclosed areas.

Personal Safety Alarm for Self Defense

Self-defense considerations of personal noise-making safety devices:

1. It is simple to operate if it functions properly, as it is mechanical and subject to malfunction.
2. It can be muffled, thrown, smashed, or crushed.
3. Sounds like a car alarm that may likely be ignored.
4. It might prevent a kidnapping, but it may also be found shrieking in the gutter at the first crime scene.
5. You may be in a location where noise is not a deterrent. What if you broke down on the highway or were confronted in an isolated area? Even with a GPS beacon, help takes time to arrive.
6. What happens when it is forgotten at home or the bottom of one’s purse?
7. What is the life of the power source?
8. Can it withstand being dropped and banged against hard surfaces yet still function when needed?

One of the benefits of this personal safety device is that it cannot be used against the intended victim. Anyone within proximity may experience pain and ringing in their ears afterward. Some people generally carry noise-making alarms for personal protection outdoors, where the noise is easily dissipated. Some shriek alarms contain a built-in combination flashlight and strobe light, which can assist you in quickly finding the keyhole at your front doorstep or even use it to check the back seat of your car. The flashlight doubles as a strobe light when the cord is pulled. When the pull cord is removed, sound and light emit from the device.

Modern society is so noise and alarm-cluttered that people seldom even look out the window when they hear alarms sounding off outside. Far fewer people call the police when they hear a noise alarm; this is contrary to what the manufacturers and sellers of these products would like you to believe.

New technology allows personal alarms to coordinate with smartphones and trigger distress signals. However, someone who is on the automatic notification list must be paying attention and, like the intended victim, is also subject to the limitations of cell phones. Another consideration is how easily the device can be falsely triggered, such as being bumped or having small children press the activation button, thereby losing the urgency notification feature.

Using a Personal Alarm as an Improvised Self Defense Device

When individuals are under stress, they may not think about activating the alarm when confronted by a stranger. After assessing multiple scenarios of being threatened by strangers, a person is more likely to progress their reactions to a public threat by pulling the alarm. But in those first incidents, the intended victim may not pull the cord or press the alarm activation button. What we think we might do is often very different than what we do when under the stress of adrenaline. These normal reactions to stress are part of the evolution of martial science.

A woman, with a black belt in Karate, was not prepared for the types of assaults directed at women. This incident was the catalyst for the development of martial science and adrenaline stress training, also known as reality based self-defense training.

Model Mugging found that personal alarms may work best as a distraction when used in conjunction with realistic self-protection skills against an assailant. When testing personal alarms under stressful conditions during a frontal confrontation from the padded assailant, our students did not think about pulling the safety cord (or pushing the button). Students had to be reminded to pull the safety alarm’s cord. Students resorted to their verbal boundary setting skills and then used their physical skills appropriately when the padded assailant approached.

The noise may alter an assailant’s intent to continue accosting or attacking an intended victim, and he may flee. However, one should never rely on this behavior. There may be cases where the assailant wishes to commit robbery, battery (strike), or kidnapping. These assailants are non-deterred by the sounds of the personal safety alarm.

A potential use for the safety alarm is when the intended victim pulls the alarm, preventing the assailant from verbally intimidating them due to the alarm’s loudness. A non-deterred assailant must knock the alarm from her body and/or smash it to stop it from sounding off. Simultaneously, he becomes very vulnerable and can be easily injured when he reaches out to grab the alarm or knock it to the ground. But if the intended victim does not have fighting experience, she is not any better off than not carrying the alarm against a non-deterred assailant.

An advantage of this device compared to other self-defense weapons and personal safety items is that, if taken away, it cannot be used against you, unlike a sharp instrument, pepper spray, kubotan, or firearm. However, it could anger the assailant when he physically assaults his victim, where he may otherwise not have struck her. The assailant can use larger personal alarms to hit or throw at the victim.

Overall, these alarms do not address the most common threat that women face, acquaintance rapists who apply tactics that isolate their victims consensually. Additionally, the abusive personality makes a personal safety alarm irrelevant.

For the most common threats against crimes within relationships, the best defense is crime prevention for personal safety. However, when a criminal-minded individual intersects with your path and lifestyle, having the experience of full-force self-defense taught in the Model Mugging women’s basic self-defense course provides the most options for women.

Those quick-fix self-defense items can add value to personal safety, especially with personal alarms that include automatic cell phone notifications to friends and family. However, the purchaser should be aware of the limitations and not become reliant on any device for self-defense or personal safety.