How to Prevent An Active Shooter in Your Workplace

MANAGING THREATS ASSOCIATED WITH
TARGETED VIOLENCE AND THE ACTIVE SHOOTER

Why We’re Here:
Protecting the Workplace
HILLARD HEINTZE © 2016 | Protecting What Matters2

Employers must maintain “a place of
employment which is free from recognized
hazards that are causing or are likely to
cause death or serious physical harm ...”
OSHA/MOSHA
PROTECTING THE WORKPLACE: A TOP PRIORITY

HILLARD HEINTZE © 2016 | Protecting What Matters
Family of Navy Yard shooting victim
files $37.5 million wrongful-death claim
• Suit alleged the Navy and the Department of
Veterans Affairs overlooked or missed a series of red
flags that should have alerted them to the troubled
history of the shooter.
• The action could inspire other victims’ families to
seek legal advice or file lawsuits.
4
PROTECTING THE WORKPLACE: A NEW RISK

Common corporate “roadblocks”
to workplace violence prevention
PROTECTING THE WORKPLACE: OVERCOMING THE BARRIERS
• Lack of awareness about the “knowable”
indicators of a potential attack
• Poor understanding of risk and mitigation measures
• Absence an targeted violence prevention strategy
• Shortfalls in policy creation and training,
sustained executive sponsorship and
sufficient security-related funding

Prevention and Early
Intervention
To manage threats associated with
targeted violence and the active
shooter, we must first gain an
understanding of the factors that
may indicate potential risk.
PROTECTING THE WORKPLACE: A PROTECTIVE APPROACH

Know Your Enemy:
Threat Assessment
and Protective Intelligence
7

Targeted Violence is any incident
of violence where a known or
knowable attacker selects a
particular target prior to their
violent attack.
8
WHAT IS TARGETED VIOLENCE?

MYTH 1:
They fit a distinct profile
MYTH 2:
Mentally ill attackers are
irrational in their planning
MYTH 3:
They make a direct threat
FACT 1:
Attackers do not fit
one descriptive or
demographic profile.
FACT 2:
Mentally ill attackers
have developed organized
and rational attack plans.
FACT 3:
Persons who pose an
actual threat most often
do not make a threat.
9
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED ABOUT ATTACKERS

Attackers
have motives
• Achieve fame
and notoriety
• Law-enforcement-
assisted suicide
• Bring national
attention to a
perceived problem
10
Attackers
select targets
• Based on their
motives and
the accessibility
of the target
• Often consider
more than
one target
Attackers have
common backgrounds
• Despair - depression -
suicidal thoughts
• History of harassing
or stalking
• Major loss or
change in life
• Few arrests for
violent crimes

What are “attack-related behaviors”?
• Interest or obsession with violence
• Develop attack plan
• Approach or visit site of attack
• Attempted assault or actual attack
• Attempt to penetrate security
• Approach or visit site with weapon
11

The pre-attack process is an understandable,
often discernible process of thinking and behavior
• Stems from an interaction among the potential
attacker, past stressful events, a current situation
and the target
• Often brings clear signs of propensity towards violence
that signal a potential attacker’s intentions
• The attacker’s thinking, planning and logistical
preparations must be detected and interrupted
12
UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING THE RISK

Assess potential threats
from the outside looking in
• Always remember that the question at the core of a
threat assessment is not “Has the subject made a
threat?” but “Does the subject pose a threat?”
• Investigations are behavior-based rather than
statement-based
• Information sharing is key to prevention

Potential workplace violence
situations can happen at any time
of the day or night.
Every company must make it their mission
to prevent such incidents from occurring by
ensuring that all reports of potential
workplace violence are investigated and
documented in an effective and
consistent manner.
14

Workplace Violence includes but is not limited to physical violence,
threats or threatening behavior communicated through verbal, written,
electronic or physical means.
15

Ensure a Workplace Violence
Prevention Policy is in place
To provide guidance to employees on
preventing acts of workplace violence,
your policy should cover five key areas:
• Identifying Prohibited Behaviors
• Courtesy, Respect and Safety
• Zero Tolerance
• Action and Enforcement
• Notification of Protective and
Restraining Orders
16

Prohibited Behaviors
• Causing physical injury
• Making threatening remarks
• Exhibiting aggressive or hostile behavior
that creates a reasonable fear of injury
• Stalking, threatening, harassing anyone
while on the job or with the use of the
organization’s resources
• Intentionally damaging employer property
or property of another employee
• Possession of a weapon while on company
property or while on company business
17
WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION POLICY
1. Identify
Prohibited
Behaviors

Code of Conduct
All employees – including
supervisors and temporary
employees - customers, vendors
and guests will treat each other
with courtesy and respect at all
times and maintain a safe
working environment.
18
2. Courtesy,
Respect
and Safety

Zero Tolerance
• Prohibits harassment, intimidation, threats
and disruptive behavior that causes fear
and acts of violence.
• Prohibits retaliation against an employee
who reports incidents of workplace violence.
• Prohibits knowingly and intentionally
submitting false claims of workplace
violence.
19
3. Zero
Tolerance

Be Proactive
• Investigate all reports of workplace violence
• Train specific individuals who will be
responsible for the assessment and
management of workplace violence
investigations
• Violation of this policy will lead to
disciplinary action
20
4. Action and
Enforcement

Be Aware
All individuals who apply for
or obtain a protective or
restraining order must provide
Security with a copy.
21
5. Notification
of Protective
or Restraining
Orders

• A history of threats or violent acts,
including threats or
violence occurring during
employment.
• Propensity to use violence to project
power, control others
or respond to stress or conflict.
• Threats, bullying or other
threatening behavior.
• Aggressive outbursts or comments.
22
WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION
• Excessive displays
of anger.
• Verbal abuse or
harassment by any means
or medium.
• Harboring grudges.
• Inability to handle criticism,
habitually
making excuses and
blaming others.
Learn to identify behaviors of concern

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION
• Chronic, unsubstantiated
complaints about
persecution or injustice
(a “victim mindset”)
• Obsessive intrusion upon
others or persistent unwanted
romantic pursuit.
• Erratic, impulsive or bizarre
behavior that has generated
fear among co-workers.
• Suicidal or homicidal thoughts or ideas.
• High degree of emotional distress.
• Apparent impulsivity
and/or low tolerance
of frustration.
• Fascination with weapons.
• Preoccupation with
violent themes of revenge and/or
unusual interest in violent acts.
Learn to identify behaviors of concern

Practicing Prevention:
Critical Issues and Insights
24

Managing a Stalker Incident
An anonymous caller reported one of the firm’s
receptionists was slandering its management
team. The company quickly learned the caller was
known to their employee and had been stalking
her for over a year.
Calls to local law enforcement resulted in an initial
flurry of incident reports and administrative filings,
but progress in the case quickly stalled.
25
REAL-LIFE CONTEXT: CASE STUDIES

A Former Employee’s
Potential for Violence
A disgruntled former employee began sending
inappropriate emails to current employees.
The client needed to assess the individual’s
potential for violence.
26

The Facebook Threat
An employee in an East Coast
branch office posted threatening
statements about company
personnel on his Facebook wall
along with several pictures of
himself posing with weapons.
27

Targeted workplace violence
in the United States
On average, 1.7 million people annually are victims of
violent crime while working – including an average
of 700 homicides per year.
28
CRITICAL ISSUES TO KEEP IN MIND

The Active Shooter
We must do everything possible to PREVENT active shooter events
• 37% of attacks ended in less than 5 minutes
• Average attack lasted 12 minutes
• 74% of attackers entered through a main entrance
• 51% of attacks occurred in the workplace
29

An Active Shooter Plan
is an essential
component of a every
company’s overall
Emergency
Management Plan.
30
THE FOUR-PART ACTIVE SHOOTER PLAN

Internal investigations
are controlled by
the organization
31
External
investigations
are controlled by
law enforcement
agencies

Workplace violence prevention
is not best left to law enforcement
Traditional law enforcement primarily focuses
on post-event operations – investigating,
seizing evidence, arresting suspects and
prosecuting the accused.
Unless law enforcement officials have received
specific training on violence prevention, they
are not likely to take advantage of information
reported to them in an effective manner.

Provides an overview of policies,
processes and protocols
organizations can adopt
• Identify and prevent threatening
behaviors and violence affecting
the workplace
• Better address and resolve threats and
violence that have actually occurred
ASIS STANDARD ON WORKPLACE VIOLENCE

How to Prevent An Active Shooter in Your Workplace

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