What are the Top Things for a Business to Do in an Active Shooter Situation?

Make your business active-shooter prepared by identifying signs of potential workplace violence, conducting a security survey and employee training, as well as establishing an Emergency Action Plan (EAP).

Moreover, with proper training your staff may be capable of responding in a way that could reduce the loss of life.

Why is Active Shooter Training Important for the Workplace?

Active shooter training is important. As constraints are easing, remote workers are coming back and customers numbers growing making it all the more crucial to mitigate risk of workplace violence by recognizing stressors.

The pre-pandemic irritations and frustrations remain. Employers should be aware of these obstacles and they should train their employees to know what to do when a situation escalates.

Emergency Action Plan (EAP)

An EAP should be composed of representatives from multiple departments such as human resources, training team, facility operators, property managers and even local law enforcement and emergency responders.

The following are recommended by the Department of Homeland Security that the EAP shall include:

• Ideal system to use for reporting fires and other emergencies
• Evacuation policy and procedure
• Emergency escape procedures, route assignments such as facility layouts and safe havens
• really like and can share this part of the page with Contact Information for local law enforcement and area hospitals
• Design an emergency alert system

Active Shooter Training Exercises

Active Shooter training is a good method to train employees on what they should do when they are in an active shooter situation.

Local law enforcement teams are an excellent resource for developing these types of exercises. These kind of exercises can be created by local law enforcement teams. The training exercise should include:

• How to identify the sound of gunfire
• How to respond if gunshots are heard or a shooting is seen
• How best to evacuate or, if that is not possible, hide or take action against the shooter
• The times that you CAN call 911
• How to cultivate a survival attitude through the crisis
• You have eyes on the back of your head as you’re always in tune with where you are and what dangers exist around for you to exploit or shun.
• What to do when police show up
• Be Prepared: Prevent an Active Shooter Incident

Identifying the behavioral warning signs is just one of the ways to prevent an active shooter situation. According to Safety Counseling, companies can also avoid such situations by implementing the following security measures:

1. Perform intermittent screening of all staff working in sensitive areas
2. Establish a badge system to show restricted areas and reason for being on-site for all office or job site personnel and guests
3. Provide visitors, contractors, cleaners, vendors and temporary workers with special badges
4. ID badges must always be visible and checked in the building
5. Gather all of the badges once visits are finished
6. -Make sure your facility has two ways out.
7. Place emergency entry/egress and first aid locations throughout the worksite
8. Analyse past active shooter events elsewhere to establish problems and successes, incorporating the results into your plan Exciting opportunity?

What to Do When an Active Shooter Is on Action

I think employees and managers need to be psychologically and physically capable of defending their life, or the lives of others if there is an active shooter in a business.

A manager would remain in a calm manner, lock and/or barricade all doors and evacuate the employees to a safe spot using the previously identified and rationale route of egress. The top three responses to an active shooter situation are run, hide and fight.

Run

Running or getting away is your first action if there is an active shooter in your workplace or area. Immediately decide the nearest and safest escape route to leave the building.

Leave your things and hands visible at all times. If you are able, help others leave the area and don’t allow anyone to enter where the active shooter might be.

Hide

If the other options to escape quickly are not available, take cover behind something that blocks the view directly at a shooter.

Block any doorways to your hiding space with heavy furniture and lock yourself inside. But you don’t want to limit yourself when the time comes to get out of your hiding place. And keep it down and please turn off your cell phone. Remain at the scene until the police arrive.

Fight

One should not fight except in the very last extremity of self-defense when your life is threatened.

In that respect, there is no other way to respond; you must go all out and attack the active shooter. Scream as loudly as you can, create makeshift weapons and grab anything that you can throw in order to hurt the shooter.

Call 911

When you’re in a safe place to do so, call 911. Keep your eye out for the possibility of further attacks and help others if you are able to. Provide the following information to the 911 operator or law enforcement:

• Location of the victims and the active shooter
• Number of shooters, if more than one
• Physical description of shooter/s
• Number and type of weapons held by the shooter/s
• Number of potential victims at the location

Law Enforcement Arrival

When they get to the scene, the goal of law enforcement is to stop the active shooter and clear other potential risks. They would then head straight for the location where the last shots were heard. The secondary team will evaluate casualties, and guide the survivors to a safe area where witnesses can be questioned and the situation brought under control.

Active shooter survivors and victims’ should remain calm, put down any items they may be carrying, raise your hands above their head with fingers spread apart, make no quick movements such as pointing or screaming and obey orders from first responders. Share this: Do not leave safe area until told to do so by police.

Post Active Shooter Event Actions

Once the active shooter is neutralized and the threat has been addressed, managers and human resources can move on to post-event analysis, which includes:

• Track everyone located in the safety area to determine who, if anybody, is missing or possibly injured. Know how to inform families with affected victims of a shooting including how to provide notification for deceased casualties
  • Evaluate the mental health of people in the environment and direct those who need it to health care professionals
  • Investigate the active shooter incident and develop an after action report
  • Review your business’s EAP with analysis and lessons learnt incorporated into it