Category Archives: Patrica Biles

New Active Shooter App Announced on October 20, 2013

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Active Shooter app released to reduce likelihood of an Active Shooter Incident.

Active Shooter incidents have increased both in the number of incidents, as well as the number of people killed and injured in the last five years.  As an aspect of  workplace violence, the active shooter has become is a serious recognized occupational hazard, ranking among the top four causes of death in workplaces during the past 15 years. More than 3,000 people died from workplace homicide between 2006 and 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Additional BLS data indicate that an average of more than 15,000 injuries were annually during this time.

The latest figures show that high-risk organizations like hospitals, schools, malls, universities, military installations and even hair salons have experienced an active shooter incident and are likely to have a dramatically increased risk for experiencing an active shooter incident in the future.

Risk & Security LLC has released a new web-based app, Active Shooter Risk-Pro©, which offers an easy to use risk assessment program that assesses your organizational risk of an active shooter incident, as well as recommending solutions to prevent an incident from occuring in the future.

In additional to using the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Guidelines on Active Shooter Response, the OSHA standard 3148 (Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care, the FBI and Secret Service Guidelines on Active Shooter Incidents, and the new OSHA Inspection Directive, Enforcement Procedures for Investigating or Inspecting Incidents of Workplace Violence, from September, 2011, are both included in the new, easy-to-use application.

The program has been tested on some of the largest organizations in the US, and runs on a laptop, PC or tablet, and even on a smartphone!.  Active Shooter Risk-Pro©  is built to be affordable and simple to use.

The web 2.0 program, includes newly compiled, updated threat databases, new active shooter incident analysis metrics, and automated web-surveys based on the DHS Guidelines..

The new program gives human services and security professionals a quick and easy way to conduct a active shooter, or general workplace violence that will recommend that will pass an audit!

The Risk-Pro©  model has been used for easy software applications by the Department of Defense and over hundreds of organizations, hospitals, and local, state and federal government agencies.

About Risk & Security  LLC

Risk & Security  LLC is a security risk assessment and risk analysis company with over 30 years of combined expertise in security risk assessment. It develops specialized programs and applications which are easy to use, affordable and which help organizations assess their risk, the likelihood of becoing a target, and which recommend cost-effective solutions.

Risk & Security offers full service consulting on critical risk assessments including HIPAA Risk Analysis, Facilities Security Assessments, Hospital Security Assessments, Workplace Violence, Active Shooter Incident Assessment, Environment of Care and more.  Risk & Security partners with security companies around the world to provide state-of-the-art security expertise to analyze risk and recommend cost-effective security controls justified by return on investment metrics.

The team of risk and security experts is led Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton, who has created more than 40 software programs, and conducted more than 200 specialized security risk assessments in a variety of environments, including companies in the United States and around the world, including in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa and Qatar.

Contact Information:

Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton, CHS III

Email:  caroline@riskandsecurityllc.com

Phone:  301-346-9055

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/riskalert

 

April is Workplace Violence Awareness Month

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The American Association of Workplace Violence Prevention (www.aawvp.org) has designated April 2012 as official Workplace Violence Awareness Month!

You can celebrate in your office by suggesting ways to reduce workplace violence in your own environment.  At AAWVP, they stress that workplace violence also happens to you, not just at work, but at the late-night grocery store or convenience store, in the hospital where you’re visiting your father, and even in your own home.

As part of the awareness raising event, the Association has invited me to participate in a special webinars about workplace violence at 2:00 pm Eastern Time, on April 18th.

You can join us by registering at http://tinyurl.com/85e33h8

Preview of the Webinar on Workplace Violence Prevention

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Companies often don’t think about preventing workplace violence until there is an incident that affects them, or a company similar to them, or geographically close.  As soon as something happens close to home, they want to get serious and do something about it right away.

Workplace violence prevention is actually a process that, like in quantum physics, when we talked about the observed particle, just putting management’s attention on the potential problem will start the prevention process.

A good place to start is with adjusting and updating your policies.  Perhaps your policy is outdated, or hasn’t been publicized in your organization.   Time to dust it off and make sure it includes these critical elements:

1.  It says:  We have a total no-weapons policy in this company.

2.  Employees are REQUIRED to report any potential, or even suspected workplace violence situations or incidents.

3.  There is an approved company form which every employee has electronically, to use
if necessary.

4.   Every employee has to attend a violence prevention training course, or active shooter drill, or both, annually.

The policy is the first step.  Next, the policy has to be approved by the management or by the Board, and then sent to every employee, along with an affirmation agreement that they sign saying they read the policy and understand it.

More tomorrow… or attend our special workplace violence webinar.  You can sign up at:

http://t.co/rKBuoDgt

Another Look at OSHA & Workplace Violence

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I just finished reading a new book called HALT THE VIOLENCE, written and edited by Patricia Biles and her Alliance Against Workplace Violence group.  Here are some of my thoughts on it, if your organization has been evaluating workplace violence issues:

Here’s my review and why I think you should get it (Amazon) and take a look – it’s a short read — less than 150 pages.

I like the insider perspective on how to prevent violence in the workplace. Patricia Biles was a former OSHA (U.S Occupational Safety and Health Administration) employee and their guru on violence issues.  Her work with industry groups and individuals has given her rare insight on the subject of stopping the epidemic of violence, and she gives practical solutions that employers and individuals can use to halt the violence.

The book covers the escalation of violence in the workplace and how OSHA reacted to the problem, which came to the forefront in 1989.  She identifies the groups most affected by violent events at work, including nurses, healthcare workers, taxi drivers, convenience stores, and late night retail establishments in particular.

As well as covering a complete history of the issue, she also weaves together input from other experts who specialize in aspects of the overall workplace violence problem, including the problem of violence in hospitals,  the increased incidents of bullying in the workplace, the importance of early intervention and practical strategies for diffusing angy, aggressive individuals.

The important of risk management procedures, such as performing regular threat assessments is identified as one of the few ways to identify individuals who may pose a threat, although the authors point out that both the Virginia Tech shooter and Jared Loughner, the diagnosed schizophrenic who shot Gabby Giffords, her staff, and innocent bystanders in Tucson, were both examined, and had psychological profiles which stated they were ‘unlikely’ to be a threat to others.

Specific violence-prone workplaces are also identified and specific recommendations given for hospitals, home health and social workers, and educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities.

In some ways, this is an insider’s book because it gives you the behind-the-headlines details, not only of major workplace violence incidents, but also a look at what it takes to create new laws and encourage congress and federal agencies to recognize the problem and take concrete steps to ‘halt the violence’!

All in all, this is a very insightful and practical look at a problem that affects every workplace and every person who goes to work and counts on returning home in the same condition.  Employers will want to implement the suggestions in the book on how to reduce violence in individual organizations, and it also offers a valuable perspective on how to comply with new OSHA standards and they continue to evolve their approach to this critical issue.