PREVENTATIVE MEASURES
FOR
VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE
AND OTHER CRIMES
Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment not just for the employees but the customer as well. Worker violence and criminal offenses can be some of the most damaging events in the lifespan of a business. Unprotected storefronts broadcast a signal making many businesses appear as easy targets for potential predators and violent employees can cause irreparable damages to the workforce, consumer, and the company. To mitigate the risk, employers should devise a plan to recognize the potential for violence in the workplace before it erupts.
Each year criminal offenders cause businesses to lose money through acts of vandalism, theft, robbery, and workplace violence. Many businesses often compensate for their losses by raising prices, changing locations, and in the worst case closing shop permanently. Too often employers simply don’t realize there are measures they can take to prevent criminal activity to keep their organizations safe. In any case, knowledge of a few basic strategies can help minimize the risks.
General safety practices in deterring the threat include keeping outside areas well lit during hours of darkness, teaching employees to report or log suspicious activity, and marking company equipment with identifying information such as the UBI number for the business. Overlooking the tremendous resources available to the business community can haphazardly cause security risks as well. Business owners should meet and talk regularly to discuss threats posed by criminal offenders to identify trends and the best ways to counter them. This is an invaluable tool in determining migration patterns, targets of opportunity, and time frames for criminal activity affecting nearby businesses.
When regularly available resources are not enough, beefing up security measures is an easy solution with quick turn-around. Installing closed circuit cameras, bolting the safe to the floor, or chaining business machines to a permanent fixture are all easy solutions with long lasting effects to counter incidents of theft. For more complicated settings such as factories and plants, using more advanced security measures may prove the distinction in mitigating company losses. Limiting access with badges or coded locks can prevent acts of sabotage or vandalism and keeping the grounds secure with chain-linked fences is a good way to keep out unwanted trespassers. It’s also important to remember to change access codes, passwords, and to collect keys from ex-employees the moment they are released.
While rashes in criminal activity may often appear as seasonal occurrences, short-term solutions can also be employed as a preventative measure. A few to consider include:
• Hiring off-duty police officers or other armed personnel to act as visual deterrents during promotional events and transfer of valuables
• Employing plain-clothes protective specialists for hostile employee terminations, and
• Posting a night watchman during non-business hours
As reported in The News Tribune, the Tacoma Police Department recently restructured its focus to violent crimes and those with the highest solvability rates (Mulick, 2008). What does this mean for business owners? Although you may have a valid complaint, your case could be triaged due to a lack of evidence and filed away, receiving little or no attention from the police. By taking just a few of the steps outlined above you can decrease your chances of becoming a victim or assist the police with enough evidence for your case to matter, increasing the chances of recovering your lost goods and taking criminals off the street.
Mulick, S (2008, April 11). Tacoma detectives reorganize to ‘work smarter, not harder’. The News Tribune, Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/332365.html
(2008). Small business crime prevention. Retrieved May 9, 2008, from Gibson County Sheriff's Department Resource Library Web site: http://www.gibsoncountysheriff.com/resource/resource_small_business.html
| LOCAL CRIME
Reportedly, the Tacoma Police Department has altered priorities for the Investigative Bureau now concentrating on crimes with the highest solvability. Many lesser seeming crimes may go unresolved in the face of the police department’s new direction.
Composed of 54 detectives, the bureau’s priorities are divided into violent crimes and major crimes. However, prior to the change, units were generally organized by crimes against people and those that involved property with subdivisions under each category. Now, under the new initiative police investigations will focus on juvenile crime, assaults, domestic violence, and sex crimes.
With approximately 41,000 reports of criminal activity to investigate each year, the investigations bureau’s intent is to increase the solve rate for major crimes as opposed to spending time on those offenses with few or no leads. Additionally, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department detectives for property crimes receive 50 to 90 new cases a day. With so many reports the police are forced to triage the caseload into a more manageable investigative effort focusing on those cases with witnesses, license plates, or information on a suspect.
What does this mean to you? If you fall victim to a crime, it may receive very little notice from the police and go unsolved placing the safety of your business at risk. What’s the solution? Enhancing your security posture. If you can’t prevent crime from happening in your area you should be prepared to assist the police with as much information as possible.
Too many businesses employ dummy cameras or simply don’t use cameras at all. Businesses in poorly lit areas that rely on conventional locks and alarms during after-hours may deter or scare off offenders but they leave very little in terms of evidence to assist an investigation. In the time that it takes police officers to respond, offenders can cause serious harm by damaging property or assaulting innocent victims making off with cash or valuables in the process. By adding a camera or an armed guard to watch over your interests during non-business hours you increase the solvability rate.
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