Friday, September 13, 2013

ASSE's Upcoming Symposium Addresses Active Shooters in the Workplace


At the Fatality & Severe Loss Prevention Symposium this November, ASSE will welcome Rob Shuster, the vice president of protective services and training for AFIMAC Global. In his keynote presentation, Workshop: An Active Shooter Enters Your Facility! What You Can Do, Shuster will discuss actions that can mitigate loss resulting from an active shooter event.

“The biggest mistake organizations make is to stay in the denial phase and pretend that this will never happen to them,” says Shuster, stressing the need to prepare for an active shooter event even if the probability of one seems low.

Without the right training and preparation, employees often experience panic, doubt and confusion when faced with the threat of an active shooter in their workplace. Shuster says some employees may freeze in terror while others might fail to react at all for fear that others will believe they are over-reacting.

“The only way to combat fear is through preparation,” Shuster says. He believes fear is often driven by uncertainty about how to react in such a scenario. “It’s important to almost force them to think about it,” he says.

One way organizations can prepare workers for active shooter situations is to conduct drills much like those that have become common in public schools following the tragic Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. Shuster promotes including local police in these drills, because their involvement not only creates a more realistic response scenario for employees, but it also gives local authorities the chance to familiarize themselves with the facilities in preparation for an actual event.

Shuster urges all businesses and organizations to conduct site assessments and develop location-specific evacuation and response plans. This is especially important for non-traditional workplaces, such as construction sites and factories, where various work activities may be occurring simultaneously and machinery noise can prevent clear communication during an emergency. “It’s not really a one size fits all,” Shuster says about preparation strategies, noting that location-specific plans should be developed even for schools because the size of the building and age of the students will alter the circumstances from one school to the next.

In his presentation, Shuster will discuss the options individuals have for protecting themselves in active shooter incidents. He will also address how experts and other resources can be used to develop a tailored response plan that takes all environmental factors of the workplace into account. His presentation will include video clips depicting appropriate and inappropriate responses to active shooter events and discussions about how individuals in those videos could have done more to protect themselves and others. One of his instructional videos can be found here

ASSE’s Fatality & Severe Loss Prevention Symposium, Avoiding the Worst, will be held Nov. 21 and 22 in San Diego, CA. Find a complete listing of seminars and more information at http://www.asse.org/symposia/index.php.