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UCLA on Lockdown

6/2/2016

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by Joy Dike, PhD
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Earlier this week the UCLA campus went on lockdown. An active shooter who murdered a professor and then committed suicide prompted the lockdown. Early news reports of how students and faculty handled the incident seem to indicate a well-handled situation. From our point of view as risk and security consultants, two things stand out about the UCLA lockdown:
  • their mass notification system worked as intended
  • faculty and students were able to shelter-in-place effectively

Mass notification is a term used to describe a system or platform that can deliver a message to a group of people (e.g., all faculty and students, all employees). Mass notification systems are typically employed to deliver a one-way message (i.e., recipients cannot respond to the message) via text message or email or both. Mass notification may be used to initiate lockdown, alert people to a danger like an active shooter, or alert people to hazardous weather conditions.

The early indications from UCLA point to a mass notification system that alerted faculty and students to shelter in place and stay away from campus if they were not yet on campus. This is why mass notification is such an important facet of an Emergency Action Plan - people need to know to stay where they are and barricade themselves; people need to know to stay away from the campus/building/location if they aren't there yet; people need to know what is happening to reduce panic and confusion. Most individuals in our society (barring elementary school students) have smart phones on or near their person at most times - a mass notification system that sends text message alerts is a smart and effective way to alert a large number of people to possible dangers. 

News reports also point to the fact that faculty and students were aware of how to shelter-in-place. In the context of a lockdown scenario, shelter-in-place means taking refuge in a small, interior room with few or no windows. Once inside the room, you should lock the doors, close and lock all windows, close shades and blinds, barricade the door, and move to a place in the room where you cannot be seen. Barricading the door and moving to a place you cannot be seen is particularly important in the case of an active shooter. In the case of schools, this usually means staying in the classroom you're already in and locking doors, barricading the door, and hiding; this seems to be how students and faculty at UCLA conducted themselves (those that were already in classrooms), even getting creative with outward opening doors. 

Drilling a lockdown scenario is important; we can't emphasize this enough. The more you practice these types of situations with your people - whether they're students, staff, or employees - the better equipped your people will be when a situation arises. Panic mode has a tendency to set in during an emergency; people may forget to lock the doors or close window blinds, so the more these things are practiced, the better people's response will be in a live event. 

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Technology is Not Your Crutch

5/26/2016

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by Joy Dike, PhD
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Fort Knox. I'm sure the name conjures images of all sorts of heavily fortified deterrent devices. The reality? 
  • Fortress-like
  • Electric fences
  • Heavily armed guards
  • Alarms
  • Video cameras
  • Granite-lined vault
  • Torch-resistant and drill-resistant walls
  • Combination locks
  • 22 ton blast door
  • Mine field
  • Barbed razor wire
  • No visitors allowed
Fort Knox rightly deserves its reputation as a heavily fortified site!  

Why are we talking about Fort Knox today? Sometimes we go in to a risk assessment and our client worries that we want to turn their school or campus or building into Fort Knox. They're worried that we're going to recommend fortified fences, cameras in every crevice of the campus, alarms on every single door, a visitor management policy that prohibits all visitors, electronic access control measures on every single ingress/egress point, and armed guards at every entrance and roving the campus.

Listen, we do believe in the importance of physical security measures such as fences, alarms, cameras, access control, and guards. But unless your culture and policies reflect a commitment to safety, you could be as heavily fortified as Fort Knox and still be vulnerable. You could have card readers at every single door in the facility, but if people routinely leave doors ajar, the technology has done you no good. You could have CCTV cameras on every inch of the campus, but if no one is watching the displays in real time, the technology has not improved your security. You could have a visitor management policy that checks all identification with registered sex offenders, but if you  have areas of the campus that are wide open (i.e., no fences) and people can simply walk on to campus without going through a security check point, then your technology has not made the campus a safer place.

Technology is not a crutch. Without instilling proper values and policies to create a culture of safety, physical security measures can only go so far in protecting your people. 
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School Lockdown

5/25/2016

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by Joy Dike, PhD
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Having and practicing a lockdown procedure at your school is something we ceaselessly advocate for here at Invictus Consulting. We believe that drilling your plan is just as important as having a plan. We've talked about this multiple times before on this blog - look here and here and here and here and here for further discussions of this topic.

What I want to talk about today is a scenario in which your school needs to go in to lockdown because of something happening nearby. Earlier this month in Katy, Texas a disgruntled former employee walked into the front door of his former place of work, yelled something about his life being ruined, aimed his shotgun, shot at multiple people (killing one of them), and then took his own life. This man had been fired from the company recently and was out to get revenge. We could discuss this situation in the context of workplace violence and warning signs or situations that may cause an employee to commit an act of violence, but the focus of this blog post is on the nearby schools. A high school, a junior high school, and an elementary school are located directly across the street from the business where the shooting occurred. These schools (Morton Ranch High School, Morton Ranch Junior High, and Franz Elementary) went into immediate lockdown. 

There are a few issues to think about here. (Before we go any further, please understand that this commentary is in no way reflective of the Katy ISD Police or schools and how they conducted themselves. The active shooter situation and subsequent school lockdowns in Katy, Texas are merely serving as the jumping off point for a thought exercise here.):
  • Why didn't the other nearby schools go in to lockdown as well? A map of the area seems to indicate that there are at least three other schools within a mile of the business where the shooting occurred and another four schools less than three miles from the shooting. That's a total of 10 schools within a 3 mile radius of this incident. It seems that the local school district department put the first three schools on lockdown, but if you're a parent or educator or employee at one of the other nearby schools, wouldn't you want to keep your students safe as well? A lockdown plan (in addition to being drilled regularly), should stipulate what circumstances qualify for initiation of the lockdown procedure.
  • At least three nearby schools did go into lockdown mode even though nothing violent happened at these schools; they were put on lockdown because of a nearby incident. If you are an administrator or educator, you need to realize and understand that incidents at other locations can affect you, even if the incident is not on your campus. Many administrators and educators that we work with think that nothing bad will ever happen at their school. Whether or not that is a reality, the fact is that bad things may happen near your school, and this should be reason enough to write and drill a lockdown procedure.
  • The three schools put on lockdown were ordered to do so by the local school district police department. We've met with a lot of school administrators who feel that they are perfectly well prepared for a lockdown or active shooter event because the local police department has a SWAT team. While a trained SWAT team may be effective in neutralizing an active shooter, are you going to rely on that SWAT team to set up your mass notification system? Audit your security protocols? Audit your camera and alarm coverage? No, of course you're not - its not the job of the SWAT team to write an evacuation plan for you or to make sure your mass notification system is in place and functioning properly. The job of the SWAT team is to neutralize the threat. The point here is that having a local police department and/or SWAT team is not enough - you need to have a proper security audit performed for your school and a proper lockdown procedure written and drilled. 

We are always sorry to hear about active shooter events, and our condolences go out to the family of the employee killed by the active shooter. However, we do strive to learn from active shooter incidents, and this particular incident has the ability to teach us a few things about school lockdown procedures. 

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Workplace Violence (continued)

5/18/2016

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by Joy Dike, PhD
We talk about workplace violence frequently here at Invictus Consulting, but we feel pretty strongly about the topic and will continue to talk about it until its no longer a problem. We've written a white paper on the topic if you'd like to check it out. 
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Drilling Your Emergency Plans

5/13/2016

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by Joy Dike, PhD
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Do you ever feel like you're in an episode of The Simpsons when it comes to conducting drills at your place of business or school?

People just don't seem to take these things seriously - people hiding in the bathroom during a fire drill, administration singing off that a drill has been done when it hasn't, or a drill being conducted at 3am on a Sunday when no one is in the building or on campus. There are too many ways to disregard the serious nature of emergency drills.

The fact is, though, that DRILLS SAVE LIVES. It is well documented that in times of severe stress your body goes in to auditory exclusion (your hearing worsens severely), you get tunnel vision (you lose vision on the periphery), you lose fine motor skills, and your thought process declines. By drilling and practicing what to do in the event of an emergency - whether its fire, tornado, active shooter, etc. - you are training your body and mind to perform the correct tasks when the time comes.

Imagine you're an elementary school teacher. You've taught in the same classroom for years. You've looked at the same fire evacuation plan on the back of your classroom door for years but never actually walked the path and practiced an evacuation. An actual fire occurs and all of a sudden your body goes into panic mode - you get auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, and decreased motor skills; now you literally can not follow the directions on the fire evacuation plan. Your students are looking at you to lead them, and you are frozen in panic, quite literally unable to think clearly. This is where drill save lives - if this teacher had practiced evacuating the classroom multiple times, over and over, month after month, year after year, her muscle memory would have allowed her to lead the children on the correct path to safety (even with auditory exclusion and tunnel vision). 

Please, take emergency drills seriously. They are not a waste of time; they are not planned as a way to make your day more difficult; they are not irrelevant. Practicing what you would do in an emergency could save your life.

With that said, let's end this very serious issue on a lighter note:

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Reunification Plans for Schools

5/9/2016

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by Joy Dike, PhD
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Here at Invictus Consulting we help a lot of schools and businesses improve their Emergency Action Plan. One part of an Emergency Action Plan is where to congregate if your campus, building, or property needs to be evacuated. Some people like to call this a "muster station," which simply means a pre-determined location to assemble people - students, employees, visitors, etc.

The question that should be asked with a muster station is: What are you going to do once everyone is there? This is a particularly crucial question for schools. If you've evacuated all students, faculty, and staff to a muster location, what do you do once everyone is there? Can parents just drive up and grab their kids? How do you even alert parents that their children are at a muster station rather than at the school?  How are you going to account for all persons? Will you keep students grouped by grade? By last name? Let them all mill around randomly? What about special needs students? Injured students? Can students have their cell phones? 

This is where a Reunification Plan is important. A Reunification Plan will give you policies, procedures, and concrete steps to take when faced with an evacuation and the need to reunify students with their parents. Like any other emergency plan, a Reunification Plan should be drilled regularly by teachers and staff so that they understand their roles and responsibilities.

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May the Fourth

5/4/2016

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Happy Star Wars day everyone - May the fourth be with you!
In honor of our favorite trilogy, we'd like to share a stormtrooper / security parallel. 
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We sometimes come across clients who have the mindset that if their security risks are written down on paper, they are somehow more liable were disaster to strike. 

We liken this to an ostrich with its head in the sand - if I can't see the problem it must not exist!

This is an illogical mindset, and it can do your organization more harm than good. Having a risk assessment done for your organization, campus, building, etc. does not increase your chances of disaster. Do you think a tornado cares if you've written an emergency plan? You write the emergency plan for tornadoes to be proactive, not to outsmart the tornado. The same holds for an active shooter. You do a risk assessment and write an emergency action plan to be proactive and to be ready in case such a tragedy were to occur. 

Some people feel that having a risk assessment done and writing and emergency action plan for an active shooter somehow AIDS AND ABETS an active shooter. Listen, you are NOT outsmarting an active shooter by NOT writing an emergency action plan - that is just flawed logic.

Don't stick your head in the sand and cover your eyes and ears and pretend like your school, church, campus, building, organization is free from threats. Be proactive and be smart and be ready.

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May the 4th Preview

5/3/2016

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We're super excited about May the Fourth (i.e., Star Wars day) over here. Here's a quick preview of tomorrow's Star Wars themed blog:
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​Are you a trendsetter? 

Stand out from the crowd and be proactive about your security management. 

Sad boring stormtroopers just stand back and let chaos happen. Awesome trendsetter stormtrooper is proactive. He's got swagger, and he's got a plan.

​Come back tomorrow on May the 4th to learn more!

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Active Shooter Training

4/28/2016

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by Joy Dike, PhD
There has been an increasing level of attentiveness to active shooters in our nation over the past couple of years. The Google trend is quite telling - attention starts to rise in July and August of 2012 after the movie theatre shooting in Aurora, CO in July and the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in August. The curve really starts to rise in December 2012 after the Sandy Hook shootings, and it peaks in December of 2015 after the San Bernardino shootings.
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The Google trend for the phrase "active shooter training" is even more telling about people's fear. The general shape is the same, but the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012 resulted in a large peak of interest in active shooter training. Ditto with the San Bernardino shooting in December of 2015 - a massive spike in interest in active shooter training. 
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Its clear that people respond to events like Sandy Hook and San Bernardino by looking for information on how to defend themselves if they were to be confronted by such a situation. We've talked about this on the blog before, but its worth talking about again - having a plan in place to deal with an active shooter is becoming increasingly necessary for businesses and schools in today's world. As an individual, there's also some steps you can take.

Active shooter training classes geared towards civilians (as opposed to training for law enforcement on how to respond to an active shooter event) are popping up all over the country. Police departments, schools, and businesses are conducting training sessions in towns, cities, and schools all over the country. In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), offers an independent study course on how to prepare for and respond to active shooter events. Similarly, the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT), which trains law enforcement and first responders on dealing with active shooters, has developed a course for civilians entitled Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE). 

The point is that there is training available to individuals wanting to learn more about active shooters and how to prepare for and respond to an active shooter event. Don't think that you need to be a police officer or on a SWAT team to qualify for training. Many of these sessions are specifically geared toward civilians looking to gain a better understand of active shooters.

See for yourself if there is civilian training available where you live. A quick internet search will probably uncover a number of options, and if you live in a place where there aren't in-person training options, take the self-directed FEMA/DHS course.
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Columbine

4/20/2016

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by Invictus Consulting
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Today marks the 17th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School. 12 students and 1 teacher were murdered in the school that day. Another 24 were injured, and the two teenage perpetrators took their own lives.

Although there had been school shootings before Columbine, they had never been broadcast so widely and been a part of the public conscious as they are now. 
Law enforcement acknowledge that the Columbine event radically and forevermore changed the way they trained for and responded to active shooter events. In addition to shifting the public conscious on such events and changing the way law enforcement deals with active shooters, the Columbine shooting opened up a national dialogue about bullying and violence in schools.

Take a moment today to remember the children and teachers whose lives were forever changed by this event. 


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