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Awareness of the Active Shooter Threat Has Increased, Preparedness for It Hasn’t

Awareness of the Active Shooter Threat Has Increased, Preparedness for It Hasn’t

Created: Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 12:07
Categories:
Physical Security, Research, Security Preparedness

In a survey of over 600 security, facilities, business continuity, and emergency management professionals conducted by security company Everbridge, 75 percent of respondents listed active shooter situations at the “top threat” (up from 64 percent in the previous report), outranking concerns such as natural disasters, cyber attacks, supply chain disruptions. Despite increased concerns about active shooters, the survey revealed deficits in organizations actually preparing themselves for these threats. Specifically, 62 percent of respondents reported never running an active shooter drill and 54 percent noted they had not conducted active shooter education. Additionally, 70 percent of respondents said their top concern during an active shooter event is communicating and confirming the safety of impacted employees. However, 50 percent of respondents reported not having communication plans in place to holistically inform all impacted people, regardless of employment status (contactors, visitors, full time employees, etc.), that there is an incident, and two-thirds of respondents said it would take minutes for a notification to be deployed. “Every second matters in an active shooter situation,” says Tracy Reinhold, chief security officer of Everbridge. “The findings show that while corporate recognition around the threat of active shooters has improved, the tangible preparedness measures and location-aware communication infrastructure is not in place to improve safety at the majority of companies nationwide. Access the report at Everbridge.