Pepper Spray Sales on safetyandsecuritysource.com Increase Due To News Stories of Young Women Being Abducted (and Murdered)

The latest news of a teenager (Kelsey Smith) abducted and killed in the Kansas City area has Safety and Security Source, featured on local ABC-TV affiliate, Selling a Record Number of Pepper Spray and Personal Alarms, Safety Product Education is the Focus

When news stories air reporting that yet another young woman has been kidnapped, assaulted or murdered, people panic and want to know all of their options for keeping themselves and their families safe. Safety and Security Source owner, Tracey Hawkins, says pepper spray and personal alarm sales spike immediately afterwards. Her goal is to stress that people be proactive instead of reactive.

"It is sad that it takes an unexpected crime in an unexpected area to make people realize that we all are vulnerable. There are no 'safe' areas anymore, just some are safer than others." Hawkins speaks about the upscale suburb in Kansas where 18 year-old Kelsey Smith was abducted from a Target parking lot in broad daylight and taken elsewhere and murdered recently.

Hawkins appeared on KMBC-TV, the Kansas City ABC affiliate, to discuss what's on the market to keep people safe (pepper spray, personal alarms), she also advised on what to look for when buying a pepper spray. She has received calls from people who want to buy pepper spray, but want to make sure it's the right product. She wants people to be educated before they go out and buy anything that they trust their lives with.

"Education is key. That's what I stress. Know what you are buying, know what it's going to do and know how to use it. Know the difference between Mace, tear gas and pepper spray. My website educates about how to buy a quality and effective protection product."

There are a lot of self-defense classes, but not a lot of safety product experts, a term that Hawkins uses to describe herself. She founded her business in 1995 and makes an effort to know what safety and security products are on the market. Since pepper spray is her most popular product, she participated in training at the Police Academy and keeps updated on information regarding its usage.

"When you walk into a dollar or discount store to buy a potentially life-saving product like pepper spray and the clerks can't answer the most basic questions, you need to rethink your plan. You need to work with someone who can tell you what to look for and what to expect, what pepper spray and personal alarms will do and what they won't do. That is my job."

Hawkins coordinates a free personal safety presentation that also includes product education. As an added benefit, she makes the products available to the attendees with additional one-on-one counseling. Her Safety Product Expo (with or without a safety presentation) allows her to set up a booth anywhere to demonstrate product usage, make products available as well as answer questions face to face. She considers it ‘Taking the Store to the People”. She has held Safety Product Expos in Birmingham, Alabama and Las Vegas, Nevada in addition to regional programs. She encourages those hosting conventions to consider having a safety booth, and for businesses and organizations to schedule a Safety Expo in their cafeterias, conference rooms, where ever there is space for her and a table of lifesaving merchandise.