Developing the Situation

Security and intelligence professionals often reference the concept of developing the situation, a principle popularized, among others, by former Delta Force commander Pete Blaber in his book The Mission, The Men, And Me (recommended reading). This concept gives you a strong framework for sharpening situational awareness in a low visibility context. It favors action and testing over static, passive analysis. You should never settle for merely observing an anomaly, when the situation isn't critically threatening, you perform a small, non-committal action that forces it to reveal its true nature.

Standard situational awareness often stops at the observation phase, where you see something that doesn't fit the baseline and flag it mentally. Developing the situation pushes that mental flag into a physical test, or at least into a more active posture that lets you watch how things unfold. Say you spot an anomaly, a car idling too long or someone who seems to be watching a doorway. Your action doesn't need to be confrontational, it only needs enough weight to draw a response from whoever has your attention.

If you suspect you're being followed, you don't run or spin around to stare. You gently shift the baseline you're presenting instead. A natural looking accidental double back works, or a stair step turn through a few side streets. A legitimate follower has to break cover to keep up, rushing, changing direction, or showing more interest in your movement than the moment calls for. A harmless bystander simply carries on, unaffected by your shift.

Developing the situation is the action phase that forces a potential threat to confirm its intent, and your small, deliberate move pushes the subject to show its true colors. When the situation turns hostile, the person being tested reacts aggressively, shows panic, or mirrors your movements exactly, confirming the anomaly as a threat and justifying an immediate switch to your PACE contingency plan. When the situation dissolves, the person or vehicle fails to follow, drifts into a different activity, or shows confusion at your sudden change of route, confirming the anomaly was benign or too uncommitted to threaten your low profile.

Developing the situation protects your low signature because the test actions look natural to a casual observer. It gives you a proactive, disciplined path to certainty, so you're neither a passive target nor wasting effort reacting to ordinary urban noise. Awareness under this approach never sits still. It runs as an ongoing cycle of observation, testing, and assessment, and once you have a clear read on where the situation is heading, you can build your next move and keep your movement purposeful and your safety secured.