Ways to Improve School Safety

Prioritizing school safety ensures students have a positive environment in which to learn, grow, develop friendships and discover their talents and passions. It also allows faculty members to educate and nurture students in their journey to adulthood.

If you’re wondering how to make your school safer, consider using the four pillars of school security — physical safety, social and emotional well-being, cybersecurity and prevention.

How to Improve Safety With the Four Pillars of School Security

These four pillars will allow you to improve school safety holistically. Let’s take at the school safety ideas you can employ at your institution based on the four pillars of school security:

1. Physical Safety

The pillar of physical safety entails maintaining a secure school campus using tactics such as:

• Erecting a perimeter fence around the campus.
• Putting up a gate and keeping it locked when classes are in session and in the evening.
• Hiring security personnel to stand guard.
• Setting up 24/7 video surveillance cameras indoors and outdoors.
• Implementing access control measures like designated parking and student drop-off zones.
• Separating student and visitor parking lots.
• Installing films to exterior windows and doors.
• Developing a visitor management system where visitors sign in at a security desk and receive an identification badge.
• Installing automatic and programmable lighting to illuminate the school’s exterior at night during after-school activities.
• Maintaining one entrance for students, visitors and staff members.
• Engaging the local community and police in your school safety programs.

2. Social and Emotional Well-Being

The social and emotional well-being pillar seeks to create a warm and inviting environment where students and faculty feel safe. It entails mitigating mental health stressors using programs that encourage resilience and intervening early when staff detect an issue to regulate behavior. To get the best results, incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL) into the curriculum.

Here are examples of SEL-based security school safety ideas:

• Clubs: Develop clubs to help students connect with like-minded peers, participate in activities they enjoy and build friendships. You can also encourage students to propose club ideas so that everyone can find a group that suits their passions and talents. Clubs and sports activities like swimming, gymnastics and basketball can run after school.
• Group work: Ask teachers to incorporate group work tasks and bonding activities in classrooms to create positive relationships.
• School programs: Creating school-wide programs to mitigate unique safety issues. For example, you can launch an initiative encouraging students and staff to report bullying. This establishes support services and encourages students to come forward when they need help.
• Counseling: Start a counseling program for at-risk students who have experienced trauma or hurt others or themselves. The program can also provide conflict resolution and encourage kindness.

3. Prevention

The prevention pillar involves preparing staff members and students for risky situations. The security measures you can take to stay ahead of threats include:

• Performing fire, lockdown and disaster practice drill procedures.
• Ensuring a reliable alarm system is in place to alert students and staff when they’re at risk.
• Creating a session for teachers to learn to identify concerning signs in students and resolve violent situations.
• Asking parents to communicate any concerns and suspicions with the school.
• Encouraging students to report security threats and helping them distinguish reporting from snitching.
• Creating a safety resource for each classroom with information on how to act during a crisis or emergency.
• Updating safety policies often.
• Examining safety equipment regularly to ensure it’s working correctly.

4. Cybersecurity

Protecting student and staff data is essential to keeping everyone safe. So, consider engaging an IT expert to secure the school network and all personal data. They can also run a cybersecurity risk assessment to identify vulnerabilities and continuously monitor the school network for threats.

Other cybersecurity measures you can take include:

• Creating a response plan on what to do before, during, and after a cyberthreat.
• Teaching staff how to create strong passwords and recognize phishing attempts.
• Ensuring all school software stays up to date.

Contact Brick Lanes Security for Effective School Safety Solutions

If you’re looking for school security solutions to improve safety, consider Brick Lanes Security. We provide effective guard security services to educational institutions, giving you, your students and staff peace of mind.

Our security officers are more than just guards — they play the role of law educators, enforcers and counselors. They have the skills and experience to protect your students and staff in any situation.

Contact us online to schedule a consultation with a security specialist.

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Trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, impacts nearly 28 million victims at any given moment. Human traffickers generally exploit people for profit through sexual acts, labor, servitude and many other types of recruitment. Regardless of age, race or gender identity, anyone can be a victim of trafficking, even in broad daylight.

Though you may be aware of the dangers of human trafficking, you may not understand how traffickers target their victims or how to detect this issue in an everyday setting. Everyone can and should notice and report indicators of this crime. We’re here to help you learn how to spot human trafficking and keep your loved ones and community safe.

How to Identify Human Trafficking

Since traffickers want to avoid giving their victims a chance to escape or ask for help, they tend to work secretly. However, in many instances, you might see a trafficker and their targets in public. These settings include restaurants, health care facilities, hotels, construction sites and small businesses like nail salons. In these situations, the trafficker has likely threatened to harm the victim or their family in some way, like having them deported.

A human trafficking victim may be too fearful to speak up. Noticing signs of human trafficking can trigger your intuition and help you report a suspicious person or situation, saving a life. A potential human trafficking victim may appear:

• Fearful
• Submissive
• Confused
• Nervous
• Scared
• Panicked
• Depressed
• Disoriented or disassociated
• Bruised or injured
• Malnourished
• Dirty
• Isolated from family or friends
• Numb or detached

These are the first physical signs you may notice from a quick interaction or glance at the person. However, plenty of other red flags can spark your gut feeling and identify someone as a victim, such as:

• They have stopped attending school.
• They have drastically changed their behavior.
• They don’t seem to have freedom of movement.
• They dress inappropriately compared to those they are with.
• They work excessively long hours or live at their workplace.
• They show signs of lacking medical care, sleep, food or water.
• They are constantly with another person who seems to be controlling them.
• Someone else appears to monitor all their interactions.
• They defer to someone else before speaking or another person speaks for them.
• They show visible signs of injury, such as burns, scars or skin problems from an unsanitary environment.
• They can’t share details about themselves — their name, age, etc.
• They seem to have rehearsed or scripted language when answering questions.
• They appear to live in poor conditions.
• They have tattoos that look like branding marks.
• Their home has extreme or unreasonable security measures.
• They lack personal possessions.
• They avoid eye contact.
• They have untreated sexually transmitted infections.
• They have untreated injuries from sexual assault or forced abortions.
• They lack proper identification documents.
• They are often with an older man who they call their guardian, manager, father or boyfriend.
• They have limited social interactions.
• They feel pressured by their employer to stay at their job.
• They live in an overcrowded situation provided by their employer.
• They are under threat from an employer.
• Guards transport them from place to place.
• They owe someone a significant debt that they are working to pay off.
• They have become addicted to drugs or alcohol as a way to cope.
• They are under 18 and engaging in commercial sex acts or prostitution.
• They have become attached to their trafficker, known as trauma bonding.

Anyone can be a trafficker. In many cases, traffickers are someone their victim knows, such as a family member, spouse, significant other, intimate partner, friend, co-worker or employer. These situations generally occur because the trafficker has promised the person something they need in exchange for sexual favors or work.

Different Types of Human Trafficking

The U.S. Department of State recognizes sex trafficking and forced labor as the primary forms of human trafficking. However, other types of trafficking exist in every corner of the world. Here’s a brief overview of the different forms of human trafficking.

• Sex trafficking: Also known as sexual exploitation, this form of human trafficking involves forcing people to engage in sex acts. These include various types of prostitution or pornography, where the victim must have sex in exchange for food, shelter, drugs or money. Some forms of sex trafficking involve individual traffickers, known as pimps or “managers,” who control victims by making them form an attachment through a false sense of trust or love. According to the American Psychological Association, seven out of 10 victims of sex and labor trafficking are women and girls.
• Forced labor: Also known as labor trafficking, forced labor occurs when a victim works against their will due to threats of violence, fraud or coercion. Impoverished people, migrants and those with an unstable immigration status are particularly vulnerable to forced labor trafficking — totaling 28 million people as of 2021. This form of trafficking typically involves unsafe conditions and unlawful wages.
• Domestic servitude: Victims who are not free to leave their employment may fall under domestic servitude. These people may receive some protections or benefits, but can’t leave the residence.
• Forced marriage: This type of trafficking occurs when one partner does not consent — or is not old enough to agree — to the union. Without consent, the marriage becomes involuntary servitude. Threats of violence can coerce a person, usually a woman or young girl, into marriage. As of 2022, approximately 650 million girls and women are in a forced marriage.
• Organ removal: Some traffickers use victims for their bones, blood and organs and leave them for dead. Some victims are desperate patients awaiting a lifesaving transplant, only to have criminals harvest their organs. Others get kidnapped or abducted for their organs. Organ trafficking generates upward of $1.7 billion each year.

Spotting Red Flags in Social Media Profiles

According to the Administration for Children and Families, social media channels have become a prominent way for traffickers to target their victims. As of 2020, there has been an increase of over 125% in reports of trafficking recruitment on social media. Traffickers use these public platforms to gather information about their victims, such as their name, age, location, school or job.

Here are some tips for spotting a potential trafficking predator on your social media profiles and keeping yourself safe:

• Their profile has a suspiciously low number of followers.
• They only have one or a few photos.
• They do not share any posts or updates.
• They have no comments from family or friends.
• Nobody has tagged them in any photos.
• Their email does not match their username for the account.
• They message you and try to get to know you without knowing you in real life.
• They seem to know a lot about you even though you’ve never met.

How Can You Help?

Learning how to prevent human trafficking starts with educating yourself and the people around you — including your children. Young people are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking because they are more trusting and may not be aware of potential danger or signs of abuse. Expanding awareness in your community starts at home. Talk to your children, family members and friends about human trafficking. Discuss some potential situations in which your kids might be vulnerable to predators, such as at a public park, the mall or the beach.

If you run a business, train your employees to spot signs of human trafficking victims. Have a protocol set in place and be sure to respond to suspicious activity in your workplace. You can even post signage about human trafficking and how employees and customers should react if they see something.

Staying observant in public can save someone’s life. Callers to the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported more than 10,000 human trafficking cases in 2021. If you see something suspicious, whether it’s a young woman walking alone with a group of older men, a child working in a restaurant or a disturbing social media post — report it. You can contact your local police, federal law enforcement at 866-347-2423 or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888.

At Brick Lanes Security, we serve as a pillar of our community with a wide range of protection and security services to provide peace of mind to Coloradans. Contact us today to learn more about spreading awareness of human trafficking and keeping yourself and your business safe.

The post How to Prevent and Spot Human Trafficking appeared first on Brick Lanes Security.

What is Executive Protection?

Most people are aware that celebrities need security protection. Whether it’s seen in movies like “Bodyguard” or “Taken” or any one of several TV shows that show celebrities surrounded by security personnel, the idea that a person well known to the public would need protection from overeager fans or individuals intent on doing them harm for whatever reason is perfectly reasonable.

Executive protection works on the same theory. The CEO or other top executives of a company are often well-known because of coverage in the media, whether traditional or social media. These executives are also the lifeblood of their companies. If anything were to happen to them, it could affect the entire company and all of its workers.

Well-known CEOs and other executives face the same kind of threats that celebrities often face. Overeager admirers, disgruntled individuals who may disagree with the company’s policies on controversial issues or other entities that wish to steal company secrets are all potential risks to a CEO, other executives and even their families.

An increasing number of Fortune 500 companies, and even smaller, more regional companies, are recognizing the need for corporate executive protection programs. These programs anticipate and plan for all the potential dangers a CEO or other top executives might face whether it’s at corporate headquarters, during a business trip or even at their homes.

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What are The Benefits of Hiring Executive Protection?

While not every corporation or top business has an executive protection strategy, that doesn’t mean they should not be thinking about creating one. An executive protection plan offers personal security for the individual protected as well as for the company as a whole.

Here are just a few of the reasons why executive protection benefits both the individual and the company:

1. It Protects Shareholders’ Investment in a Company’s Top Executives

As noted above, CEOs are often widely recognized by members of the public who are fascinated by what they do, how they live their lives and even their families. This means that a CEO or some other widely recognized member of a company’s executive team is in the same kind of dangers as celebrities.

But there’s a second aspect to this that celebrities don’t deal with — the investor and business impact of something happening to a company’s CEO. The company invests a lot of money in their CEOs. They have high expectations for them in terms of the company’s growth, restoring prominence if the company has experienced hard times and acting as the company’s main cheerleader in public.

If, in the worst-case scenario, a company’s top executive dies because of a security or health incident, the reputation of the company and the company’s share prices can be deeply affected. Therefore, the board of any company needs to recognize that the company’s value can be dramatically affected by the safety of its CEO. So it’s fairly straightforward that a board needs to provide executive security to their top executives if they want the company to continue to thrive.

2. It Helps the Productivity of Top Executives

Think of all the time that it takes you to prepare for and then take the trip. There’s packing the bags, the calling for the cab, the waiting for the cab, the lines at the check-in counter, going through security at the airport — and that’s only on one end of the trip.

When you provide secure travel for a CEO or top executive, they can take much of that time spent waiting in lines and for cabs actually doing work or even taking meetings by phone or video conferencing. CEOs are extremely busy people and every second counts. They are paid a lot of money because their time is valuable. When you provide corporate executive protection security services for a CEO or other top executives, you enable them to use every second during their trip to do work for the company.

3. It Enables Safer Travel and More Travel

This benefit builds off of the previous one. When a CEO or other top executive knows that the travel will be safer and more protected, they are more inclined to make more trips, whether within the United States or outside. This will enable them to have more productive meetings with customers around the country, important employees in different regions, face-to-face time with government officials and investors in the company around the world.

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4. It Provides a Competitive Advantage

If your company’s CEO is more productive, travels more often to important meetings, and feels secure in the knowledge that they and their families are well protected, this will definitely give your company a competitive advantage. When your top people are performing at their very best, this benefits your company in numerous ways.

5. It Provides Immediate Help During Medical Emergencies

The benefit of having a trained and quality executive protection team traveling with your CEO during the business day or on a trip means that there is always a first responder immediately available if the top executive experiences a medical emergency such as a stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, asthma attack or some other life-threatening emergency.

In many of these situations, survival rates depend upon how quickly an individual receives treatment. Quality security teams are trained in dealing with these sorts of medical emergencies.

These are just a few of the benefits of executive protection. As you can see, it’s not just your CEO or top executives that are protected, but in many ways, your company is as well. While some board members may be reluctant to spend the money, having an executive protection program in place is a smart business move on several important levels.

What Situations Require Executive Protection?

Not every situation may require executive protection — a CEO or top executive may not need the kind of individual executive protection necessary on a trip when they are working in their office for instance — but there are situations where executive protection is almost always needed:

1. Public Appearances

Whether it’s in your hometown or during a trip, any time a CEO or other top executive appears in public, there is the potential of a threat. For instance, if the executive is speaking at a conference, appearing at a business-related function or attending a cultural event, persons of interest such as disgruntled ex-employees, protesters or even potential kidnappers could do significant harm. These are situations where it’s always important to provide executive protection.

2. Home Security

If your CEO or your top executives are well known, they also need to feel safe in their homes. The safety provided, however, needs to allow your CEO and their family members to feel comfortable and relaxed and not on edge. A quality executive security service will provide the appropriate measures, whether they be the presence of security personnel or state-of-the-art security systems, that allow your executives to know they are protected but still feel relaxed in their homes.

3. Cybersecurity

The information and knowledge that your CEO has about your company’s business activities give it a competitive advantage and are often the number one thing that other companies wish to access. For that reason, protecting computers and data plays a significant role in executive protection. Quality security services provide physical monitoring of your top executives’ computers and other electronic devices such as mobile devices or tablets.

This is especially critical when a company’s top executives are traveling especially overseas. A lost or stolen computer that ends up in the wrong hands can be devastating to a company’s bottom line.

4. Family Members

Often, the family members of a well-known individual can be as much at risk as that well-known individual themselves. Even if your family member has no connection to the business whatsoever, that will not make any difference to a kidnapper or another individual who would target a family member thinking they could obtain ransom money, information on company secrets, access to the company’s facilities, passwords to data systems or other items of interest.

Executive protection for the families of top CEOs is critical. Quality security firms can make sure this happens unobtrusively so family members can live their normal lives while being protected from any possible threat.

5. Traveling Abroad

These may be the most dangerous times for the company CEO or any other top executive, particularly if they are traveling to a part of the world where their security will always be at high risk. The situations normally include possible kidnapping attempts or theft of important corporate information, but sometimes the political situation in the country can change quickly and what appeared to be a safe situation one day is a dangerous one the next.

Quality executive protection teams take all these factors into account. They cover all aspects of travel and plan for every possible scenario involving a top executive and their electronic devices.

What Should you Look for When Hiring a Security Company for Executive Protection?

If you’ve decided to offer executive protection to your CEO or other top executives in your company, it is important to note the qualities you want in the executive security company that will give you the results you desire. Not all security companies are created the same. Quality security companies share certain fundamentals:

1. They Have Proactive Rather Than Reactive Security Plans

The best security firms offer protection based on a proactive process of threat analysis and how to mitigate those threats. You do not want to work with a security firm that employs a “wait and see” strategy and only deals with dangerous situations when they arise.

A proactive security program uses risk analysis and the mitigation of risk to find just the right level of protection. They understand all of the risks, threats and vulnerabilities and then examine them piece by piece to develop a plan to deal with them. Only when these potential threats have been properly evaluated will the company develop a plan to deal with every situation.

This will reduce risks in situations where the threat level is high and may make security more tolerable in the situations with the threat level is low or nonexistent.

2. They Have a Staff of Experienced Professionals

No doubt we’ve all seen the teenage mall security guard who is expected to provide security in that environment. Or the opposite — the security guard who is well into their 60s and still expected to handle every situation.

Executive protection requires a different kind of security. A quality executive protection firm will employ former law enforcement personnel, veterans or other individuals who have worked in highly trained security environments. These individuals are already experienced in providing executive protection. You don’t have to worry about “breaking them in.” They are experienced professionals who can provide the level of executive protection that you need.

3. Their Security Professionals Do Not Get Starstruck

Top security professionals are often called upon to provide protection for a wide variety of well-known individuals such as athletes, celebrities, politicians or well-known CEOs. Top security personnel are not starstruck. They are there to do a job. They will not ask for autographs or selfies. They will not get flustered while looking after an important individual. Their training allows them to spot the difference between a legitimate threat and a fan who means no harm.

The quality security firm that provides executive protection employs people who know what they’re doing and for whom it is important to do a good job.

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Contact Vigilant Tiger for Executive Protection Services

In today’s threat environment, a company does not have to be located in Chicago or Los Angeles to be vulnerable. Any executive, regardless of where they are located, is vulnerable if the security in their corporate headquarters or their individual security is insufficient. It’s relatively easy for anyone who pays attention to news media or the Internet to discover where an executive will be traveling. If executive protection is insufficient, someone may attempt something threatening.

Vigilant Tiger is one of the top executive protection companies in Colorado Springs. We pride ourselves on being able to anticipate all potential threats and dangers a CEO or any other executive could face. We hire experts in every field of security we cover. Working with Vigilant Tiger for executive protection means working with a member of our team who excels in CEO security.

If you’re interested in talking to us about an executive protection program for the top people in your company, we are ready to help put that program into action. You can call us at 719-313-2950 for more information. You can also contact us online and let us know how we can reach you as well as some details about your security needs. A member of our team will contact you.

CONTACT US FOR EXECUTIVE PROTECTION SERVICES TODAY

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Recently, the FBI reported in a study that active shooter incidents in the United States take place about once a month. But it’s not a stretch to say that it feels like they happen more often. While many western nations around the world do experience active shooter incidents, they happen by far most frequently in the United States.

Occasionally, active shooter incidents will fall into a pattern of once or twice a week, followed by a lull of several weeks, scattered throughout the country, occurring in a variety of different locations: shopping centers, churches, music concerts, fast food outlets, universities, movie theaters, universities and high schools. Unfortunately, there is literally no location in the United States that is free from being a target of an active shooter.

No one ever wants to find themselves in the middle of an active shooter incident, but it’s important to know there are actions you can take to mitigate injuries and fatalities or even prevent them entirely.

Preparation is the most important factor. The days of “It could never happen here” are far behind us, because the reality is that it could happen anywhere, at any time. Regardless of the environment in which you find yourself, there are things you can do to help improve your chances of survival and escape.

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Tips for How to Respond to an Active Shooter Situation

Recognizing that there were enough active shooter situations in the United States that people needed guidance in how to deal with them, the Department of Homeland Security has issued several important pieces of information and pamphlets that provide important instructions on dealing with an active shooter. The main thrust of their advice can be boiled down to three words: run, hide, fight:

RUN

If you become aware of an active shooter, your best option is to run away as fast as you can:

• If you work in an office, locate all exit doors and be aware of where they lead. If possible, choose the one that leads outside. It’s important to pay attention to the location of exits regardless of where you are.
• Whether you are with your family in a church or in a mall, or with your coworkers in your office, pick a spot outside the active shooting zone where you can all gather when you escape. Please do this ahead of time as part of your regular preparation during evacuation drills.
• If you’re in a movie theater, a church, or some other public facility, make sure you check out all the ways you can exit the theater in an emergency.
• If you’re on a higher floor, never take the elevator. Always take the stairs.
• If you’re on a lower floor, windows are an option. In both the Columbine and the Virginia Tech shootings, students were able to escape via windows.
• If you’re running and the shooter spots you, start to run in a zigzag fashion or from door to door or desk to desk.
• Do not pull a fire alarm. A fire alarm may lead people to believe it’s a fire or drill and proceed to leave in an orderly fashion. You don’t want to confuse them. Yell “gun” or “shooter” as you are running away.

HIDE

If it is impossible to run away from an active shooter, you need to find a place to hide as quickly as possible:

• If you can, find any room that you can lock, be it another office, a closet or a bathroom. Look for rooms near elevators, as they often feature reinforced walls. This offers more protection if the gunman, sensing that someone is hiding in the room, is using a high-powered semiautomatic weapon and tries to fire through the walls.
• Whether you are running or hiding, leave everything behind. The temptation will be to bring important things with you, like your purse or tablet. Ignore the temptation. Things can be replaced if necessary. Humans cannot.
• Once you’re safely in a room, locked the door, turn off the lights and silence your cell phone.
• Stay low in the room but do not lie on the floor. Active shooters tend to shoot higher, so bending down offers an extra element of protection. You also don’t want to lay completely prostrate on the floor because this eliminates the chance of surprising the gunman if either the room is unlocked or he breaks open the door.

FIGHT

If you are unarmed, as most people are when confronted with an active shooter, choosing to fight back is a last resort:

• Find whatever item you can use in your location as a weapon: chairs, paperweights, bookends, stools, scissors. They’re not ideal but they can be useful.
• The best time to fight back is either just as an active shooter enters a room or when they have paused to reload. Recently, a man in Florida was able to prevent further fatalities when he grabbed the gun out of an active shooter’s hands as the shooter paused to reload. Remember — only choose this option as a last resort.

When Help Arrives

At some point, police will arrive and attempt to end the situation:

• In an active shooter incident, it is always better to show rather than to tell.
• Police can never be certain how many shooters are involved in the attack, so when they find you, place your arms in the air and spread your fingers wide to show them you are not armed.
• Resist the temptation to hug the rescuers. This could easily be misinterpreted.
• Do not ask them questions or for first aid unless immediately necessary. They will lead you out of the building and to a safe area. You can then ask questions or request first aid from healthcare responders on the scene.

Active Shooter Tips for Specific Locations

1. PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Active shooters have killed many students and teachers at schools like Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School and Marjorie Stoneham Douglas High School in the past few years. Entire generations of students have grown up in the last two decades aware that this could happen in their school:

• Local authorities and school officials are also aware that any school could be a target to an active shooter. As a result, they have put into place many measures that have stopped many potential active shooter incidents before they could take place.
• Awareness of the signs of a potential active shooter is key. Community members have prevented shootings by reporting disturbing incidents or statements by other individuals about taking guns to school.
• School administrators need to impress on students that it is vitally important that they report any disturbing or unsettling postings by an individual on social media. In almost every school shooting, post-shooting investigations have shown that someone was aware the shooter was thinking about taking guns to school.
• School administrators also need to put an active shooter plan in place and run drills with their students. They need to impress upon them that, if an active shooter is involved, not to pull a fire alarm for the reasons mentioned above.
• School administrators should also make sure local law enforcement has detailed blueprints of the school and are aware of all the possible exits.
• While most American schools screen visitors before they enter the building, school administrators need to stress to parents and students not to let anyone in the door without being screened. Do not hold open the door for either a student or an adult who has not been screened.

2. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Colleges and universities require different preparation than public schools. If the shooting takes place at a public school, is likely to happen in one building. At a college or university with multiple buildings, a shooting could take place on one part of the campus while the other part of the campus seems completely normal. Here are the most important points to remember:

• Many of the same rules about awareness in the community apply as much to colleges and universities as they do to public schools. College administrators should create a 24-hour anonymous tip line if they have not done so already.
• Colleges and universities should prepare well in advance with local law enforcement for a potential active shooter crisis. They should also work with their student communities via social media and other popular platforms to both share knowledge on how to deal with an active shooter situation and to alert students if a shooting is taking place.
• Colleges and universities can obtain active shooter pocket cards from the Department of Homeland Security and then distribute them around campus. Digital versions should also be made available on all department websites.
• Colleges and universities should also ban all troublesome individuals from their campuses. Their pictures and information should then be distributed to both campus police and local law enforcement. Once this information is distributed, it’s easier for authorities to prevent a return.
• Again, planning and preparation are key. When your students know how to respond to an active shooter situation or how to spot potential problems, your campus is better protected.

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3. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS

It’s unfortunate that churches, synagogues and mosques need to think about planning and preparation for active shooter incidents, but as recent events have shown, even religious institutions are not safe from someone with a grudge or desire to do great harm:

• Preparing and planning for a potential active shooter has become a part of every priest’s, minister’s, rabbi’s or imam’s to-do list. Religious authorities must work with local law enforcement. If the religious leader of your community doesn’t have time to do that, your community should select someone who does. This individual can then come back to the larger group and inform them of police plans in case of an emergency.
• Blueprints of the entire facility should be given to the local police along with copies of keys for every door.
• In almost every active shooter incident involving religious communities, the shooting was instigated by a disgruntled member of the community. It’s very important that religious authorities report any suspicious activities or comments from members of their congregation. This is also true for the wider community as well.
• Once a service has started, close the main doors. Assign a responsible member of your congregation to stand in the back and observe those who enter late. They can help guide them to a seat or alert the gathering if there is a potential problem with a troubled individual.
• Religious leaders in the community should make sure their congregations are aware of all exits in the facilities. It may be a good idea to, once or twice a year, hold an active shooter drill with the congregation.
• All of the tips mentioned above in the “run, hide or fight” section also apply in a religious setting.

4. BARS, MUSIC VENUES AND MOVIE THEATERS

Each location offers different challenges in determining how to deal with active shooters. In the case of a bar, music venue or movie theater, you are dealing with a new audience each night, so the kind of preparation and drills you can do in the locations mentioned above aren’t possible. But there are still actions you can take to help minimize injuries or even prevent shootings:

• In each of these venues, it is extremely important that your staff is trained in how to deal with an active shooter situation. They need to know how to move people out of a room quickly and with as little panic as possible. They should be familiar with all the exits and know which ones are the best choice for getting people out fastest.
• Experienced bar staff and even music venues and movie theater ushers have probably developed some skills in behavior recognition as part of their regular duties. Local police departments often offer courses in how to spot troubled individuals and how to deal with them until police arrive. Make sure your employees receive this training.
• As noted above, give the police blueprints of the facility so they know where every room is located along with all possible exits. One of the problems the police faced during the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando was that they had no idea of the layout of the inside of the facility, which delayed their entrance into the building.
• Nightclubs and movie theaters should be outfitted with special doors that prevent people from entering from the outside but allow patrons on the inside to exit easily. These doors can be outfitted with alarms that go off when opened in order to prevent customers on the inside from allowing friends to sneak in.

Let Brick Lanes Security Help You With Your Security Needs

If you have a facility or an event that needs extra security, it pays to work with a leading company like Brick Lanes Security. Veteran-owned and operated, Vigilant Tiger has the experienced and knowledgeable staff to help you improve your security regardless of the situation. From event security to providing the best security for individuals, vigilant Tiger will work with you to make sure your needs are met.

Call us today at 719-313-2950 and let’s talk about your security expectations.

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