Report: Most Businesses Unprepared for Active Shooters

Organizations consider active shooters a top security threat in their facilities. But are those same organizations equipped to handle an active shooter? That is another story.

Despite two-thirds of organizations naming active shooter as a top threat, 79 percent are not fully prepared to deal with one, and more than 60 percent of the organizations fail to run readiness drills, according to results of a recently released survey from Everbridge and EMS Solutions.

The report, titled “Active Shooter Preparedness,” surveyed security and emergency management leaders at almost 900 organizations, focusing on companies with greater than 50 employees.

While active shooter situations worried respondents, a majority of them said they were not prepared for an active shooter situation, and highlighted communication to affected employees as a major issue.

Key findings of the research included:

• 69 percent of organizations view an active shooter incident as a top threat. Workplace violence was cited as a top threat by 62 percent.

• Communicating with and confirming the safety of those in an impacted building were viewed as the biggest challenges during an active shooter situation by 71 percent of organizations. Still, 39 percent still said they do not have a communications plan in place.

• 73 percent said employees or students are willing to exchange some aspects of privacy for enhanced security.

For more information on security issues in facilities, visit www.facilitiesnet.com/security.

This quick read was submitted by Dave Lubach, associate editor for Facility Maintenance Decisions. Reach him at dave.lubach@tradepress.com.

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