The first component to the training is to explain why your organization has decided to conduct violence prevention training. Do not be anxious about this; they all know of workplace homicides from the news media and will be glad that your organization is finally addressing this topic. As we mentioned earlier, tying your violence prevention plan to an existing core value or long-term strategic imperative is an excellent way to explain your rationale for the plan. Whether it is linked to employee wellness or employee safety initiatives, it will be well received. You will also need to explain why the training is necessary. Grossman’s references to fire drills are perhaps the best and most common sense explanation you will find. You want to build the same automatic reactions to gunfire as there is to a fire alarm.

The next step is to define workplace violence and, again, our guidance is to use the definition from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: “Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide.” OSHA definition of workplace violence https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence/.

After defining workplace violence, it is then time to explain the real risks that they face in your business environment. Of the three primary risks– relationship violence, associate violence, and external violence – the risks that most organizations will be faced with is relationship violence and associate violence. Most organizations are not centers of government and finance nor do they have the symbolic and ideological significance that will attract hate groups, lone wolf killers, or terrorist cells. All three primary risks should be discussed, but it should be done so in the context of the most likely risks that the organization will face.

The next phase of the training is to present what is already in place to protect them. This is where you will discuss your current state of physical security, such as closed-circuit television systems, security guards, alarm systems, access control, and so forth. This is also where you will discuss the policies you have in place related to violence prevention and why you have them. These can be any of the policies outlined in the prior chapter, such as your company’s weapons policy and the policy on inappropriate behavior, as well as policies requiring that only one person at a time enters through an access-controlled area, policies related to the reporting of threats, and restraining orders and any other policy related to the safety and security of your workforce.

This is also the point to discuss the addition of new policies and other enhancements to increase their protection while in your care. Such things might include new access control systems, new policies, the placement of emergency call boxes throughout the building and parking facility, and the introduction of safe rooms and periodic lockdown drills. Lockdown drills are extremely important in getting your associates out of denial and panic and into the survival mode.

Safe rooms and lockdown drills are becoming more common in businesses and many public buildings. Safe rooms should be an enclosure, lockable from the inside, preferably with no windows or at least no interior windows that allow someone in the hallway to see into the room. Even if the enclosures in the facility all have interior windows, there are film coatings available that are bullet and shatter resistant and have a frosted or clouded texture that make it difficult to tell if people are inside, especially if they are lying on the floor. If you cannot afford to put the film on all of the enclosures, then have it applied to enough of the rooms in different areas so that everyone has access to a safe room. In most instances of prior rampage shootings, the killer, who is looking for a large body count, typically bypasses locked doors. Shooters know they have a finite amount of time before armed first responders arrive (usually 12 to 15 minutes) and they want to increase their body count rather than waste time trying to gain access to a locked room.

Lockdown drills should be conducted at least twice a year. There are different ways to execute the drill. We recommend that the drill event be announced about a week in advance. You do not have to provide the exact date and time, but it is a good idea to give people some notice so that they are not overcome with anxiety when the lockdown alert is given. Some companies begin the drill by firing a starter or blank firing pistol to provide the most realistic scenario possible. Other companies ring some type of alarm that is easily differentiated from their fire or severe weather alarms, while still other organizations have two preprogrammed intercom announcements that can be played at the push of a button. The first announcement is for drills and states, “This is a lockdown drill. Please execute all lockdown procedures at once.” This announcement is usually given three times and followed by an all clear message once the drill has been completed. The situational risk assessment and management team should monitor the drills and be looking for a quick acknowledgment of the alert with everyone getting into a safe room as fast as possible. If the response was poor and slow, then be honest with the associate and schedule a follow-up drill within the next two weeks. Ask for associate feedback, as they may have experienced problems with the lockdown plan that the situational risk assessment team did not anticipate when the plan was constructed. Don’t worry that the plan wasn’t perfect. Part of the reason for conducting the drill is to identify weaknesses and correct them before the real thing happens.

The second preprogrammed lockdown announcement is used in the event of an actual violent incident and states, “This building is now in lockdown and this is not a drill. Please execute all lockdown procedures at once. Police and emergency responders are on their way.” Again this announcement is repeated at least three times. Part of this announcement is intended for the shooter. “Please execute lockdown procedures” may cause confusion or anxiety for the shooter as he or she doesn’t know what that means and hopefully construes it to mean that the associates are about to take defensive actions. “Police and emergency responders are on their way to the building” is designed to let the shooter know that armed help is on the way and the shooter had better be leaving.

The fourth component and an extremely important one is the role that your associates play in the safety and security of your organization. You will want to outline the issues that you want reported to management starting with the warning signs detailed in Chapter 6, which are:

There are also other things that should be reported:

This training phase should also include whom to notify of their concerns, usually a manager or human resource representative. As mentioned in Chapter 8, you also need to have a reporting option for those who wish to remain anonymous and those options for protecting anonymity should also be explained.

The next phase of associate training is how to react if violence occurs. The conventional wisdom recommended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security is to:

If there is shooting inside of a building and your associates can safely find their way to an exit, then they should run, escape, get to a safe location and call the police. They should give the police the address of the building where the shooting is occurring and give them as much information about the shooter(s) as they know, such as how many are there, what they look like and what they are wearing, what part of the building were they in, and so forth. They should also tell the police where they, themselves are and provide their physical description, including a description of the clothes they are wearing and an accounting of how many other associates may be with them.

If they cannot escape, then they should get to a safe room, lock the door, turn off the lights, and lie down. They should also silence any noise-making devices, such as cell phones, tablet computers, laptops, and so forth. If safe to do so, they should call the police and give them the same information as previously mentioned:

If they cannot get to a safe room, then they should hide anywhere they can, such as under a desk or inside of a closet and remember that silence is their friend – so they should turn off cell phones as well as any other noise making devices. Hiding might also entail playing dead. Once the police arrive in sufficient numbers to enter the building, the event will be over fairly quickly, but those who are in lockdown or hiding should wait until the police inform them that it is safe to emerge.

It is important for everyone to understand that they can successfully defend themselves from an attacker, including an active shooter. There is even research that has been done on this subject. Texas State University released a study in March 2013 that examined 84 active shooting events between 2000 and 2010. [1] In these 84 shooting events, the intended victims fought back in 16 of the incidents. In all 16 events, the intended victims were able to subdue and disarm the shooter. In only 3 of the events were the intended victims armed, in the other 13 they did not possess firearms. Let’s briefly examine some other situations in which the victims were victorious. You may be familiar with some of these incidents:

From the aforementioned incidents, as well as many others, we see four tactics that are commonly repeated:

The victor’s mindset is present in every situation where the victims overpower the shooter. The mindset is simply a realization that no one has the right to take your life and a commitment that if someone tries to take it they will be met with a relentless counterattack that the shooter is not prepared to meet. In the Long Island railroad massacre, the White House shooter, United Flight 93, and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, those who fought back did not have that mindset at the beginning of the incident but developed it during the attack. In the Seattle bus robbery, the last intended victim already had the mindset as he fought back immediately and decisively.

During the Long Island railroad massacre, the White House shooting, and the Gabby Giffords shooting, the victims used the moments when the shooters were reloading as an opening to launch their counterattack. An opening is simply any moment where the shooter is not focused on the victims or any moment when the shooter is distracted from shooting, such as when the firearm has been shot dry and needs reloading. However, rather than waiting for a shooter to reload, you can create an opening that allows you to commence your counterattack. Throwing something into the face of an attacker is a great distraction. When something is thrown into someone’s face, there are naturally occurring responses that he or she cannot control, such as head ducking, head tilting back, eyes inadvertently closing, hands coming up to block the incoming missile from the face. Those openings are brief but not difficult to create. Throwing a briefcase, laptop or tablet computer, pen, or even the half-eaten muffin on your desk can provide the opening you need. A great implement to keep in mind is the fire extinguisher. If you are inside any office building, retail shop, school, manufacturing facility, distribution center, or other building, fire extinguishers abound. A blast in the face from the extinguisher can create the opening you need and the canister can be used to launch your counterattack. Common objects found within the environment where the attack occurs can also be used as weapons to help overcome the attacker. A high school student’s backpack is a formidable impact weapon when swung or launched at an attacker. A large pair of office scissors or ballpoint pens can be used as effective stabbing implements.

One of the factors present in all of the incidents cited is the fact that force in numbers can overwhelm an attacker. It is also noted that in most instances, once a person makes the decision to counterattack, others quickly join in. In the Seattle bus robbery one passenger who had been robbed was trailing the robber through the bus when the final victim launched his counterattack. The trailing passenger and another passenger leapt in almost immediately and assisted in subduing and disarming the robber. In the shooting at the White House, one tourist tackled the shooter and another was close behind. It is obvious that the clearheaded action of one person during a crisis influences the actions of others.

Victims may not realize it, but in many cases, they have a distinct psychological advantage over the attacker. As discussed in earlier chapters, although many shooting attacks seem to be impromptu actions, they are not. After a mass homicide, investigators typically find a sufficient amount of evidence to show that an inordinate amount of preparation went into the attack and the shooter spent many months planning the event.

All of this planning contributes to factors giving a psychological advantage to the victims, which is simply this: The attacker does not expect resistance. The meticulous planning that the attacker has done has also produced a movie of this event that plays continuously in the attacker’s mind, which the attacker has watched thousands of times. When the part plays showing the attacker walking into the room with his or her firearm, all the attacker sees are cowering, compliant victims. The attacker is not prepared for resistance because that scene is not in the mental movie he or she has been watching over and over. Therefore, when someone blasts the attacker with a fire extinguisher and smacks the attacker with the red canister, the attacker is not prepared to react and his or her attack may fall apart, especially if force in numbers is then applied. Remember Mike Tyson’s quote from Chapter 8: “Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.”

We are certainly not saying that unarmed associates should set out to actively engage a shooter with a firearm. But if cornered and the only alternative is to die, then adopt the victor’s mindset, find common objects to use as weapons, and take advantage of the force you have in the numbers that are with you.

The last phase of the associate training is to inform them of what will happen in the aftermath of an incident. They need to understand that when the police arrive, their primary objective is to neutralize the shooter(s). Evacuating the innocent and tending to the injured are secondary to putting an end to the shooting. As such, they will probably not stop to talk to anyone as they enter the building. If they do, it will be to ask questions and they will be looking for quick and concise answers. Your associates will also be treated as suspects until the police have ensured that all shooters have been identified and killed or in custody. Therefore your employees should expect to be detained by the police, possibly have officers point guns at them, handcuff them, search them, and place them on the ground. They should understand that this is temporary and they will be released just as soon as the police have cleared the building and have an understanding of what occurred.

Your employees should also expect that the new media will arrive and will want to talk to them. They need to understand that your organization has a policy that prohibits them from talking to the reporters and they need to understand why. At the point that the news media arrives, your employees do not know the whole story of what happened and they do not want to supply conjecture or assumptions that can impede or jeopardize the police investigation. Their best course of action is to simply say, “No comment.”

Social media also plays a new role in providing misinformation to the public, and your employees should be prohibited from discussing company issues on social media for the exact same reasons that they should not talk to the news media. Further, if any employees snapped photos or recorded video on their cell phones either during or after the incident, they should understand that the photos and video are considered evidence and should be turned over to the police rather than posted to their favorite social media sites. Even photos they may have snapped of employees standing around afterward will be wanted by the police who will view them to see if everyone in them can be identified as an associate and ensure that no shooter slipped out when employees were evacuated from the building.

Managers and supervisors should receive the same training as nonsupervisory associates. In fact, if at all possible they should receive the training with the associates they supervise.

There are additional concepts that managers and supervisors need to understand and the first one is understanding liability. Whenever an incident occurs there are three questions that will be asked:

If the answers are as follows, then there is probably liability that can result in regulatory fines as well lawsuits against the organization and possibly against individuals who knew about it, or should have known about it, and failed to take action to protect the people in the organization:

Managers and supervisors also need to understand their roles once someone has come to them to report an issue.

Finally, as relationship abuse and violence is the most common issue that the company will face, the managers should be well aware of their symptoms as outlined in Chapter 5:

We would like to reiterate that your managers and supervisors should be observant of these symptoms as clusters of sustained changes to the person’s normal behavior. There are many reasons why someone might be skipping lunches or have a visible bruise that don’t involve domestic abuse.