How organizations can protect those they serve
Church Mutual Insurance recommends a three-step approach to mitigate the risk of violence at businesses and organizations.
It’s a sad fact of life — armed intruders are an ever-present concern for people in the U.S., where headlines about mass shootings at houses of worship, businesses, concerts, movie theaters and other venues are all too common.
Here are the answers to some common policyholder questions about how businesses and organizations can help protect their patrons.
Question: What steps do organizations need to take to protect the public against armed intruders?
Answer: According to the new Risk Radar Report — Safety in America from Church Mutual, more than half of respondents (54%) say their top safety concern while attending events is an armed intruder or physical violence. That percentage has increased from 45% in 2019. Meanwhile, only 27% of those surveyed feel their organization is prepared for an armed intruder event.
Question: What steps can organizations take to plan for a potential armed intruder event and help their people feel safer?
Answer: Church Mutual recommends a three-step approach.
Step 1: Perform a security self-assessment. Before any organization amps up its security, take a step back and look at how well current security is working. Consider taking a security self-assessment that includes a checklist for evaluating crisis preparedness.
Step 2: Determine a security strategy. When respondents to the Risk Radar Report were sked to share their thoughts on armed security, 56% felt it would be a good idea in situations where there had been a previous threat or incident. People also felt armed security was prudent when an organization is located in a high-crime area.
An armed volunteer security team poses the greatest amount of risk, because the organization is responsible for the team’s actions. Other options include hiring local law enforcement individuals or private contractors to provide security, which lowers an organization’s liability. If an organization is determined to have security, the option with the least amount of exposure is an unarmed volunteer security team. This involves organizing people and asking them to watch for suspicious behavior, de-escalate non-violent incidents, and alert people gathering in your facilities to danger.
If an organization chooses any armed security option, they must contact their insurer to discuss plans and make sure the appropriate insurance coverages are in place.
Step 3: Plan an armed intruder tabletop drill. One of the best ways for an organization to determine whether it is adequately prepared for an armed intruder event is to plan a drill. While full-scale drills can be difficult to perform, a tabletop drill is much more manageable. During the drill, the organization gathers a team of no more than 15 people to participate —taking care that none of the participants were involved in planning the drill.
Question: What can be done to prevent an armed intruder from ever entering the facility?
Answer: Always look for violence warning signs. Before a big event, it’s important that organizations take time to assess the risk of violence at that event. Do this by:
- Monitoring social media. Sometimes, people who plan an attack will broadcast their intentions days or weeks before the event. Enabling anonymous reporting. Many would-be armed intruders tell one or two people about their plans beforehand. An organization may choose to create a web-based form that allows those people to warn the organization anonymously. Reviewing physical security measures. This involves assessing key systems such as locks, security cameras, lighting, alarms, gates and doors.
Of course, even when an organization has multiple security measures in place and has planned extensively for multiple scenarios, tragedies can still happen. The steps mentioned here are not a failsafe against violence. But they do provide organizations with tools to be as prepared as possible should the worst occur.
Eric Spacek is assistant vice president of Risk Control at Church Mutual Insurance.
See also: