Would appreciate anyone’s recommendations for personal safety items - and tips! Recommendations for specific products are welcomed. Bonus points for items that are effective yet easy to carry and nonintrusive as possible, especially when one doesn’t want to carry a purse or bag. Thanks in advance!
Ability to run fast, and shoes that you can run fast in.
@ucbalumnus I never knew you had a sense of humor! Aren’t you the poster @Pizzagir accuses of always being so literal? I think you’re trying to prove her wrong. 
Any one with some more literal tips?
Make sure you check your state law on whatever you get. States vary as to rules for things like pepper spray.
Remember that the best way to defend yourself is to be somewhere else.
I went to school in NYC back with the dinosaurs. I attended a two hour session on self-defense that the school offered. They provided me with ideas/techniques on what to do and when to possibly do it based on what was going on around you (i.e., how to act crazy on a NY city subway so that people would keep away from you, for example) and what you have with you (i.e., pick up a bottle from a trash can and kind of bang it menacingly to the palm of your other hand or hold your keys in between your fingers and make a fist such that they jut out). I’ve never had to use any of it. But I know it and remember some of it. Maybe find a class on that kind of self-defense. As for pepper spray or something like that, I am sure I’d hurt me long before I’d hurt someone else. 
Cell phone, charged and ready to call 911. Where are you going that you’re worried? How late at night?
It’s not for me personally.
Thanks for all the tips. Of course, we’ll check on local laws and precautions will be made to have a charged cell, to be careful of where one goes, etc. I’m just thinking of other “tools in the toolbox” one can have for an extra layer of precaution for city living “just in case”.
A refresher self-defense course can’t hurt, either.
Some people (VERY few) I know have mini pepper spray bottles attached to their key rings. One person had a whistle. If you do want to equip your kid with something, I’d recommend one that can be easily attached to an ID/lanyard because if not it will probably be left in the dorm room. If your kid is planning to study late at night in libraries then maybe having something for a backpack would be okay, but anything in there would likely be forgotten when returning from hanging with friends across campus, parties, etc.
My campus was relatively safe so having those types of items wasn’t particularly necessary but I’ve heard at other schools it’s worth carrying something.
Walking with others late at night and most of all having a phone with some charge in case of emergency are I think the best and most useful tips for safety in college.
Thanks. FYI - This is not campus related or college related.
Here is what you shouldn’t get…My sister in law just gave my kids a ridiculous gift, a flashlight with a stun gun capability. Only you have to actually have it on the other person’s body. My son looked it up and thank goodness it’s illegal in NY where he goes to school. I threw the one for my daughter in the trash. My daughter is a peanut, the chances it could be used against her instead is a way more likely scenario. My son isn’t taking it with him, he’s in the midst of trying to get security clearance, the last thing he needs is some kind of arrest for having it.
That does sound useless and dangerous, @eyeamom! Yikes! I hope your SIL’s kids aren’t carrying one around.
While at that same NYC school, I used to put my key on a skirt pin (think kilt) and also attached a whistle. We didn’t have lanyards back then or at least not as prevalent as we do now. Plus I figured I could jab someone with the pin if need be (no need). I could pin the key/whistle to my shorts when necessary (if there were no pockets, etc.)
http://www.shopamericanwhistle.com/amdesapa.html
http://survival-mastery.com/skills/communication/emergency-whistle.html
a personal safety whistle attached to your keys such as this one
If I needed to blow a whistle in an emergency, pretty sure I’d be too scared to have the breath. Frankly, if a couple of people come at you, I doubt you could pepper spray all of them. My own first rule is safety in numbers and an idea the people around me would respond if there were trouble.
Better than whistle - search amazon for personal noise alarm. They’re small and lightweight, amazingly loud, and activate with the simple pull of a pin. Best to keep in an accessible pocket , not on your key ring where pin may dislodge at any time. Good for walking to your car late at night when alone, etc. Noise is a good deterrent.
I keep hearing about something called Tigerlady which is some kind of claw thing you wear on your hands. I don’t know anything about it.
While running ability and shoes that you can run in may be an unorthodox suggestion, it can actually be of practical value.
If someone tries to attack you, then if you can run faster than the attacker, then you just need to get out of reach. On the other hand, if the attacker can run faster than you can, then if you fight back, you must fight to incapacitate the attacker, instead of merely getting out of reach.
https://www.tigerlady.com/pages/how-it-works
Same concept as holding your keys between your fingers in a fist…
I also think you need to understand that persons panic level. I better be able to scream because I don’t think fast on my feet in a crisis. If I had to fumble for keys, reach for something, assemble anything at all, I may as well just lay down and play dead.
Yes, I do think that comes into play, @eyeamom. I think having things in hand can help a little as well as practice using whatever you decide to have on hand
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I get @ucbalumnus’ suggestion of running fast but a) you need to having running chops to start with - many people don’t for various reasons and b) some people’s reaction to fear and crisis would be to run like a hungry lion is after them. For others, there is more the freeze and panic reaction. I remember not being very good at tag when I was a kid because I think my personal m.o. is more the latter.