An Active Shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area; in most cases, active shooters use firearms and there is no pattern or method to their selection of victims.[1]
Active Shooter Situations by Their Very Nature are Unpredictable and Evolve Rapidly
In most cases an active shooter event is over within 3-5 minutes, yet on average it takes law enforcement between 8-10 minutes to arrive, once they have been notified.
Since 1999, law enforcement has changed their response, and now the first officers on the scene will seek out and engage the shooter. Depending on the size of your facility, that may mean that the police officers will not be attending to the injured or assisting with evacuations for an extended period of time. Because of this, employers and business owners need to have a plan in place and train staff on several key points of an active shooter.
Active Shooter Training Is a Critical, Yet Complicated and Time Consuming Process
It is a critical process to insure that your staff knows how to protect themselves and others in the event that a shooter arrives at your facility. That being the case, management has to consider training in the following topics:
- Does staff know how to recognize potential workplace violence indicators?
- Have you taught staff how to quickly and safely evacuate the business?
- Do you have in place designated safe rooms for staff to shelter in if they cannot escape?
- Does staff know how to respond if an active shooter is in or near your business?
- Do they Run Out – Hide Out – Fight to Survive?
- Do they know what safety measures to take?
- Does staff know how to respond when law enforcement arrives on the scene?
Training staff in advance is your best option so as to ensure they know what your expectation is of them in the event that a shooting occurs. In the absence of a written Emergency Action Plan, or a response plan to a violent incident, you have no way of knowing how staff will act, or what actions they might take. All through school we were taught how to evacuate for fire drills, and now students are taught how to respond to an active shooter. History shows that once you have been trained, you will react in a predictable manner, yet most businesses provide no training for any type of emergency.
Let Protection Management Assist You Developing an Emergency Action Plan
We’ll create an action plan that addresses evacuations for all types of emergencies. We will also assist with writing policies, training materials, evacuation maps, and other important documents. And most importantly, we will provide training seminars to your management and staff on the proper response to an active shooter.
Contact us today for a free consultation to discuss your needs and how Protection Management, LLC can assist your organization in keeping your staff and customers safe.
