When i wrote my blog about the Shootings at the Washington Navy Yard on September 16th, I got some nasty notes about “Why did you have to write about this so soon after it happened?”
Well – I guess the fact that after about 15 days, no one can even remember the incident (8 people shot to death); the name of the shooter (Aaron Alexis), or much of the details. It seems that people have decided that it was a mentally distributed person, so couldn’t have been prevented. This is completely wrong.
One of the issues that security directors have is how to make their organization aware of the active shooter threat without terrifying them. How do you get a large group of people out of the “It can’t happen here” mindset? One of the main ways to bring an issue back home is by using the incident as a security awareness notice.
Write a “Lessons Learned” email and send it to everyone in the organization. Follow it up with a purse and wallet card with reminders on what to do when faced with an Active Shooter situation.
Keep everyone informed on what happens after the incident – how the injured are doing, and more importantly, what changes the organization has made to ensure that it won’t happen again.
Try doing a simple threat-risk assessment to illustrate to management what the chances of having an active shooter incident actually are, based on the industry, the region, and the number of problems/complaints that employees have expressed in the past.
Don’t let anyone forget that this can happen to any organization, no matter how well funded, or how secure they think they are. Remember, if it could happen in a DOD military facility – it could happen to YOU!