Get Your Plan in Place Now!
Recent, and not so recent, national tragedies have proven that a proper lockdown procedure is an absolute must for businesses and corporations. A secure lockdown procedure will ensure that your building and, most importantly, the people within your building are safe and secure in a threatening situation. A sound lockdown procedure serves as a great resource for during and after an incident.
If you don’t have an established lockdown procedure, you should strongly consider enacting one. Here is a starter guide you can reference during the early planning stages.
One of the most useful tools any business can develop is an official Threat Assessment Team.
A Threat Assessment Team is a group of officials who gather on a semi-annual basis (that’s the minimum – the more meetings; the better) to identify, evaluate, and address threats or potential dangerous incidents that could jeopardize the safety of your facility.
Tip: Create a diverse team of employees from all departments. Moreover, you could even ask local law enforcement or outside medical and mental health professionals to join the team as well depending on the size of your organization.
Note: Your building may already have a Threat Assessment Team if you reside in a leased office space. You can talk to building management about joining and getting a copy of the lock down procedure.
The first task the Threat Assessment Team should tackle is planning and conducting a risk assessment meeting to discover all potential emergency scenarios.
It’s important to not base your lockdown procedure just on active shooter scenarios. This plan should be crafted to handle fires, gas leaks, localized flooding and any other types of threats discussed in the risk assessment meeting
Tip: Think about your geographical location when discussing these situations. Do you live in an area where severe weather is common? Have other local businesses experienced threats in the past?
After your Threat Assessment Team has carefully crafted a fully functional lockdown procedure, emergency drills need to be conducted. A recommendation is doing two drills every year!
Tip: Create two different drills so you can accurately test the fluidity of your procedure.
Following each drill, make sure to have a review meeting with the Threat Assessment Team.
How did the staff react during the drill? What went right? What went wrong? What can we improve?
Tip: Businesses with large properties can especially benefit from implementing a “panic button”. These devices are easily configured to trigger multiple emergency alerts simultaneously and have the ability to automatically lock all doors within a building. Moreover, similar to fire alarms, these devices also have the ability to contact local law enforcement. They create a seamless mechanism that is stress free for your team!
Not only should you plan a secure lockdown procedure to keep your building and people safe and secure during threatening situations, but you should also consider adding innovative security systems to improve the overall protection of your entire facility. From camera surveillance and building access control systems in New Jersey to intrusion alarms and automatic gates in Delaware, you can count on Access Security Corporation to provide the security solutions you need.
