Violent incidents always tend to occur without any warning. They hardly leave little or no time to prepare to respond to them. Today, they are considered among one of the most serious threats organizations are facing. It’s not limited to act of terrorism, but may be in various forms. Therefore, private armed security guards must ensure they are always prepared to take on such grave situations.
Why Most Organizations Ignore Violent Threats?
Violent incidents have a tremendous impact on organizations which may result in their complete collapse. Though, most of the organizations ignore such threats & do not work proactively to mitigate them because of the assumptions such as:
- It won’t happen in their organization
- They don’t have the budget
- They’ll deal with them when it occurs
These reasons may be understandable from an organization’s perspective, however, in matters involving violence, prevention is undoubtedly the best option. Since every organization and site faces unique challenges, private armed security guards need to approach such situations using missions-based site-specific plans. But, how do they prepare for it? Let’s take a look.
How Should Private Armed Security Guards Prepare For Violent Situations?
Preparing for an act of violence is not as easy as it sounds. It requires every armed private security guard to work with multifaceted approaches to take on such situations. And, it all starts with:
- Including A Risk Vulnerability Assessment
Considering the key risks should not be a priority not only for the organizations but also for the private armed security guards. It’s where they begin with performing a detailed analysis of the risk of violence. And to do that a substantial amount of resources are needed at their fingertips. For a particular organization, all this information can be collected from the security guard reporting software of a guard management system. Since every organization and site is different, so are the risks of violence.
Understanding the previous pattern from the analysis enables the private armed security guards to formulate effective plans for response, communication, and recovery for such vulnerable times.
- Train Private Armed Security Guards On Incident Resolution
Another important aspect that unquestionably plays a significant role in preparing for violent situations is training the security guards. In comparison to any other plan, it’s one of the most effective ways that should be put in place long before an incident occurs.
This process mostly involves conveying response protocols created on the basis of analysis done, using the data collected from a security guard reporting software. It also involves letting the security guards assess the situation, so they feel empowered to resolve the conflict on-site first hand in the best possible way.
While doing so, it’s highly advisable that the guards follow the basic principle to contain a conflict than letting it turn into a violent situation:
- Stay calm, breath in, & not take anything personally.
- Keep the communication simple to avoid or resolve the conflict.
- Watch your body language. It should neither be defensive nor threatening.
- Keep up with the latest conflict resolution skills.
- Discuss & Develop Better Comprehensive Plans
Security guard incident reports come in handy when it comes to discussing and developing better comprehensive plans. How? As in the case of detailed analysis, as discussed earlier, large resources are required. Similar is the case with discussing and developing better strategic plans while stepping up your game. However, in this case, current security guard incident reports are more than enough.
These reports shed light on the recent incidents and their nature. They help to understand if:
- Using communication instead of force will be work or not?
- When physical intervention should be considered and with what type of people?
- In a physical confrontation what approach should be used to calm the individual down?
Keeping in mind all these questions helps in developing better comprehensible plans for the future. But, they need not be done once in a while. Regularly modernizing the plans ensures not only the safety of your clients but also ensures the safety of your security guards.
Instead of dealing with the after-effects of violence, why not adopt a stay proactive approach to prevent such violent situations on-site.
