The Area of Interest & You

Outside your Area of Operations is the Area of Interest (AI).

The AI is the area where you’re interested in what’s happening, but you don’t anticipate being there.

For instance, if I lived a mile and a half from a police station, then I would be interested in what’s happening there, although I don’t anticipate having to go there. If you live three miles from a bad part of town, consider putting that in your AI. Your AI should include anything within a reasonable distance that can indirectly affect you.

Inside my AI (outer ring, above), which is roughly 1.25 square miles, I have the following features:

– Two gas stations

– An automobile mechanic shop

– A Jehovah’s Witness church

– A storage facility

– A large non-denominational Christian church • A veterinary medicine facility

– A restaurant

– A fire station

– A commercial building and retail shopping complex

– A small non-denominational church

– A mobile home park

– Numerous small and large residential areas, including single-family homes and apartments

– A nursery and gardening store

– A building complex with government offices

– A preschool

– A bilingual school

– Numerous other smaller buildings and homes

I can expand or contract my AI in any direction as I determine what features I want to monitor. This area is growing fast, so I’ll be forced to shift my AI when the operational environment changes, i.e., as new apartment complexes or residential areas pop up. You should change your AI as the mission dictates, as well.

The important thing is to just start with something. We can always edit the AI later once we start digging into the Operational Environment. If it’s too large, make it smaller. Too small, make it larger.

Neither the AO or AI have to be perfect shapes; in fact, they probably shouldn’t be. The AO and AI can be some version of a circle, a square, rectangle, or, in the case of my AI, a funky polygon. You should rope in whatever is of interest to you, and exclude whatever you deem of no importance.

These boundaries help focus our intelligence collection. Students in the Area Study Workshop or Tactical Intelligence Course ask me frequently: “Mike, how far away is too far away for our Area Study?” Well, is it in one of these two areas (the AO or the AI)? If so, then it’s not too far away. Is it outside these two areas? If so, then it’s probably too far away.

A final note about my AO and AI: there will be significant features within both. These significant features may be physical terrain, human terrain features, critical infrastructure, buildings, or many other things.

Some of these features will negatively affect you during an emergency and others may positively affect you. Your goal is to identify these features and determine their effects. This is a crucial part of your Area Study. I want to maximize the benefit of the things that positively affect my security situation, and minimize as much as possible any factor that can negatively affect my security.

Now let’s go to Google Earth and have a look at the AI.