At Spring Valley Area Command, women learn defense techniques

Donlyn Figenbaum of Summerlin was holding her daughter, pumping gas at a station near Fort Apache Road over 20 years ago, when a man approached.

“He said, ‘I’m gonna steal your daughter,’” Figenbaum said. “I ran into the store, dropped my daughter and told the attendant to call the police and lock the door. The lady locked the door and I ran back out to fight the guy off. Another guy happened to be driving past and saw us fighting, and he came and contained the guy until the cops came.”

Her daughter is 25 now, and on July 17 the two attended a women’s safety class at the Metropolitan Police Department’s Spring Valley Area Command together. Hannah McCready, crime prevention specialist for the department, led the presentation and discussed best practices to avoid falling victim to crimes.

“The Personal Safety for Women class focuses on educating women in Las Vegas on how to reduce their risk of becoming a victim of a crime,” McCready said. “The goal of these classes is to reduce the opportunity that criminals have to make our citizens victims. This class in particular focuses on situational awareness, being a good witness, and encouraging our citizens to know what is going on around them.”

About 30 women of various ages attended the class. McCready spoke to them about locking their doors when getting gas, fighting against possible assailants, and staying alert at all times.

“I think the info they had was great,” said attendee Pat Dodd of North Las Vegas. “The situational awareness is such an important thing because people are so tuned to their phones. They don’t know what’s going on around them. I think this encourages everyone to be aware.”

Dodd has lived in her house for seven years and said she has frequently witnessed passersby walking up and opening her front door.

“I have a gate in the front, then my front door,” Dodd said. “If we leave that gate unlocked, people will open the door. I’ll say ‘hey’ and they run off. It’s happened multiple times. I haven’t reported anything because I never see them.”

McCready has taught five classes to over 300 people this year, she said. She also has taught classes on financial crimes, burglary prevention and workplace violence.

Contact Mia Sims at msims@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0298. Follow @miasims___ on Twitter.