TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo resident Mandy Phillips makes sure someone knows her location, keeps her cell phone readily available, carries mace and remains aware of her surroundings when she goes for walks on trails and parks.
"I like to walk and run my dog and I feel safer with my Riley and then I also carry mace. I let my husband know if I go for a run and I have my cell phone, so that's what keeps me safe," she said of the precautionary steps she takes.
Those are safety tactics that Earl Mack, post commander and president of the Toledo Buffalo Soldiers, said are crucial.
"You have bad guys out there and they don't care, and obviously you see that based on what happened just recently," he said.
Mack is referring to an incident over the weekend when a woman was hospitalized after being stabbed multiple times near the Chessie Circle Trail in west Toledo.
He wonders if the outcome could have been different if she had a whistle.
"Bad guys don't like noise and it will normally almost 100% scare them off because then it brings attention to that particular area and what's going on," Mack said.
The Buffalo Soldiers began passing out whistles seven years ago as a part of their safe and secure program after the stabbing of Sierah Joughin, a University of Toledo student who was kidnapped and killed in 2016 while riding her bike in Fulton County.
The soldiers speak with people in public places like parks about how to protect themselves.
"When we see a single female walking alone, riding their bike alone, we then stop them if they want to talk with us and talk to them about being safe and how to be safe and give them a military police grade whistle," Mack said.
He hopes giving out whistles will positively impact the community.
"I just wish there was something we could do to constantly just snatch that bad guy off of the streets so that we don't have to be afraid of our community and be free to walk within our community and do the things we do," Mack said.
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