It’s a sad commentary on the current U.S. environment that most schools – from pre-K through high school, and colleges and universities — have plans and have run drills with teachers and students on what to do if an active shooter shows up. For obvious reasons, these plans and drills are primarily about safety and security.
An Everbridge survey shows that a while a high percentage business leaders are concerned about workplace safety and violence, not as many have taken the steps to have an appropriate, actionable plan that covers security, operations, legal, human resources and communications.
Based on CommCore’s experience working with both security and communications teams, it’s important for communicators to be thoroughly aware of how they fit in with what will be a fast-moving event. Clearly, law enforcement and building or company security have initial and primary responsibility during any violent events.
Usually, these events are over in a short period of time – minutes, not the days and weeks that can occur with other types of crises such as a strike, environmental accident or product recall.
Once the violence has ended and law enforcement declares the shooter is dead or in custody, a coordinated team must work quickly.
If you don’t have a plan, an internet search will provide a number of templates. Even asking a question through AI, you retrieve response formats that don’t take much to fill in the blanks.
For an active shooter event:
- Create a plan. Make it specific to your organizations and risks.
- Coordinate the response with organization security and local law enforcement.
- Like other emergency plans, practice how you will respond after the incident.