Active Shooter Training For Businesses: Keep Your Employees Safe
Employee safety is a top priority; Active Shooter Training for Businesses equips staff with critical skills to respond to emergency situations. Join Right Now!
An active shooter incident occurs when one or more individuals attempt to kill people in a crowded environment, and these incidents involving active shooters have increased globally in the past year. According to recent active shooter data, an event occurs every 3 weeks in the United States.
Unfortunately, active shooter situations are becoming frequent, and they may happen anywhere, including in the workplace. The FBI reports that approximately half of all active shooter incidents occur in a commercial or business environment.
Loss of life, physical destruction, and lasting financial and reputational ruin can all arise from an active shooter incident at a company. Yet, companies can take measures to train their staff better and reduce the likelihood of an active shooter scenario.
Active Shooter Training For Businesses:
Students will participate in interactive training tailored for business owners. This training is based on evidence and includes hands-on exercises. The following subjects will be covered in the course:
- Risk and threat evaluations
- Developing a Tacticaly Sound Strategy
- Drills and procedures for Escape, Barricade and Defend.
- Response methods for the immediate responder until law enforcement clears the scene.
Logan Lee teaches a program developed by Dave Young to help you with Active Shooter Awareness and Preparedness strategies, a training designed to assist business owners in preparing for the unthinkable. Logan offers valuable ideas and tactics to assist business owners in empowering themselves to deal with difficult and sometimes dangerous situations.
Logan Lee reminds us that, just as we must plan for hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes, we must also prepare for active-shooter scenarios.
Why Is Active Shooter Training Important For Businesses?
As a business owner or manager, you need to ensure you provide your employees with active shooter training so that they can respond appropriately in an active shooter situation, potentially saving lives in the process.
Understanding The Threat:
The nature of active shooters and their motivations must be comprehended. By definition, an active shooter is someone who is currently engaged in murder or attempted murder in a restricted and heavily populated space. Attackers’ reasons for going on the offensive might range from grudges to ideology to mental instability to simple vengeance. Businesses can benefit from recognizing the warning signs of an active shooter and taking preventative actions in response to this knowledge.
The Role Of Business Owners And Office Workers In An Active Shooting Incident
Office workers should know their coworkers’, customers‘, and colleagues’ signs and symptoms and take every complaint and issue seriously. When a colleague suddenly exhibits antagonistic behaviour, a major change in performance, or visitors who fail to produce proper identification, individuals should look for aggressive, depressive, or withdrawal-related behaviours. Learning the time clock of an active shooter will help us identify and respond appropriately to that time clock.
1. Escape
Flee the area where the shooter(s) is/are located (escape), Barricade (not lockdown) other units, and leave personal goods behind if it is safe to do so. Mobile and immobile customers/workers should be relocated to a secure environment. If exiting the building is not possible immediately, run to a predetermined safe area within the unit. We just don’t run. We must have a place to go, decide how to get there, and determine what to do once we get there.
2. Barricade
If escaping isn’t an option, ensure workers and visitors are safe. Seek refuge in a place with solid walls and few windows. This is most likely the predominant response of immobile people and caretakers. Electronics should be completely silent. Entryways or rooms should be locked and guarded with available furniture or equipment. We must barricade to speed up the shooter’s time clock and buy us time to either escape out a window or buy us time to protect ourselves by defending ourselves.
3. Defend
Defend yourself and your staff – as a last resort, use physical force to disrupt or overpower the aggressor. Items such as improvised weapons and disarming methods are taught to your staff. Employers should provide active shooting mitigation training to their employees, despite the randomness of mass shootings. Employees should receive specialized training on recognizing suspicious-looking people, tactics for analyzing real-world situations, and strategies for minimizing their risk of being harmed or killed when these violent episodes occur.
Role Of Employees:
The following are some of the roles that employees play in preventing and responding to incidents involving active shooters:
Recognizing And Reporting Potential Threats:
It is important to train employees to recognize concerning behaviors and report them to management or the appropriate authority.
Knowing Evacuation And Shelter-In-Place Procedures:
Employees must know how to evacuate safely or shelter in place in case of an emergency.
Emergency And Law Enforcement Instructions:
Employees should follow the instructions of law enforcement and emergency personnel in the event of an active shooter situation.
Coping With The Aftermath Of An Incident:
Employees can suffer traumatic effects from active shooter incidents. Counseling services or time off work can help employees cope with the aftermath of an incident.
Participating In Emergency Drills:
Practicing emergency response plans regularly can help employees recognize any potential weaknesses in the event of an active shooter incident.
Understanding The Role Of Security Measures:
The employee is responsible for understanding and following any security measures implemented by the business, such as access control and surveillance.
Keeping Calm And Staying Alert:
Any employee who witnesses an active shooter incident should remain calm and alert and inform law enforcement or emergency services of any relevant information.
Contributing To Ongoing Preparedness:
In addition to providing feedback on emergency response plans and participating in training sessions, employees should be actively involved in ongoing preparedness efforts.
Active Shooter Prevention Strategies For Businesses
Preventive measures can make it less likely that an active shooter situation will happen at work. Here are some things companies can do to protect themselves:
Access Control:
It is possible to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering the workplace by limiting access and implementing secure entry procedures.
Surveillance:
Monitoring systems and security cameras can deter potential attackers and provide valuable evidence in the event of a crime.
Threat Assessments:
Taking proactive steps to prevent incidents in the workplace can be achieved by conducting regular threat assessments.
Emergency Drills:
It is important to conduct regular emergency drills to ensure that employees are prepared for active shooter situations and that evacuation and shelter-in-place procedures are effective.
Emergency Response Plan:
Employees can be better prepared for emergencies by developing emergency plans and communication protocols.
Employee Training:
Employees can receive active shooter training to help them understand the threat and respond effectively in an active shooter incident.
Mental Health Support:
Employees can receive mental health resources and support to prevent incidents before they escalate.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Businesses and their employees can prepare for active shooter situations with six different kinds of active shooter training.
Various methods for preparing active shooters for specific situations include classroom instruction and practical exercises, such as drills and simulations.
An organization should provide active shooter training to all of its employees.
It is important that active shooter training is conducted at least once a year regularly.
The best way for businesses to prepare for active shooter situations is to create an emergency response plan, train their employees, and conduct regular drills to prepare them for a situation like this.
Employees need to adhere to the emergency response plan, which may include lockdown procedures, evacuations, or sheltering in place during an emergency.
As well as implementing security measures, such as access controls and security cameras, businesses can prevent active shooter situations by employing security personnel and installing security measures.
There is no question that businesses should provide their employees with support and resources following a situation involving an active shooter, including counseling and debriefing sessions.
Active shooter training helps prepare employees to respond effectively in high-stress, potentially life-threatening situations by preparing them to respond promptly and effectively.
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