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.