News

Responses to a Tragedy

Security Distributing & Marketing Magazine:
Responses to a Tragedy
by Maggie McFadden
April 23, 2007

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech University campus shooting on Monday, April 16, 2007, security experts across the country have chimed in with their opinions and evaluations of the situation. Many agree that such a tragedy is a difficult situation to plan for — however it can be done. While crisis plans on campuses and universities might involve first responders, campus administrators, campus public safety, S.W.A.T. teams, students, media and families — dealers and systems integrators also can take part in planning for such crises by encouraging their customers to take a proactive approach to security and by assisting campuses and universities in assessing their risk and determining their security needs.

SDM spoke with a number of experts who could talk about the impact of the Virginia Tech shooting, both in the short-term and long-term, and how security dealers and systems integrators can help customers in the education market, prepare for all types of crises.

“I think [the Virginia Tech incident] will cause colleges and universities to take a step back and thoroughly evaluate their safety and security environment,” said Steven Healy, director of public safety at Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. and president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). “As part of that evaluation, institutions will likely invest additional monies into the physical security infrastructure.”

One of the things that Healy, and other security experts SDM spoke with, recommended was the use of threat and risk assessment tools as a starting point for a college or university in evaluating its current plans and systems. IACLEA developed such a tool from the Department of Homeland Security and with the help of other organizations. Information about this tool, as well as a wealth of other tips and information can be accessed through IACLEA’s Web site (www.iaclea.org). Dealers and systems integrators may find the organization’s site a useful tool in helping them understand the security needs of educational campuses. “We also suggest that many of the integrators and [security] manufacturers can be very useful in conducting assessments as well. Private consultants can also play a role,” Healy added. One of the ways ADT Security Services Inc., Boca Raton, Fla., helps partner with schools and universities is to offer free assessments to help them determine their risks and security needs.



Total Security Package

Healy says that mass notification systems and other electronic security systems and technology can be useful in establishing a strong infrastructure at campuses.

Patrick Fiel, public safety advisor – education at ADT Security Services, says that mass notification systems, like the one that ADT offers, are a great area of interest for universities and campuses across the country. “Within the last six months, campuses have been responding and showing a lot of interest in our mass notification system. Many schools have identified this as a need,” Fiel said. One of the challenges that Fiel, Healy and others point to is whether a school actually has the budget to fund such systems.

Unfortunately, a university’s total security package depends on the budget available, and security dealers and systems integrators needs to be prepared to help schools and campuses find electronic security needs that are appropriate for what they want to protect — and that fit into the organization’s budget. “It depends on whether the school has the financial resources to put expensive equipment in. Some are operating on much tighter budgets than others,” said Chuck Burdick, director of campus safety and security at iXP, Lawrenceville, N.J. The company works with public safety and those in the education market to help ensure that their security needs are met. Burdick, who has 25 years of fire service for the Littleton, Colo., Fire Department was one of the first responders to the scene of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. He says that it is too early to tell what we will learn from the Virginia Tech incident, but eventually changes will happen. Some of the lessons learned from the Columbine school shooting, said Burdick, were what worked and what didn’t work when responding to an active shooter incident. “One of the simple security things we learned that saved a whole lot of lives at Columbine was that all of the doors at the school were always in a locked position,” Burdick recalled. This simple security measure kept the shooters from entering many classrooms and areas of the school because the doors were locked from the inside automatically.

“All buildings should be securable,” reinforced Fiel. “Buildings should have access control and classrooms should always be able to be locked from the inside.”

One of the lessons reinforced by the Virginia Tech incident, said Fiel, is how important communication is. “We found out just how important it is to get information across to people immediately and in multiple ways. There are multiple technologies and resources that can apply to this situation,” Fiel said.

Barry Nixon, executive director of the National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, agreed. “These days, there are a number of electronic applications that can help with the process of immediate communication automatically — but you need a plan in advance.” Organizations and campuses alike need to be able to get a hold of people on campus and off, have a strategic plan in place for such a situation, and administrators and security personnel need to be trained in exactly how to deploy the technology, Nixon said.

In addition to access control and mass communication systems, many of those interviewed by SDM emphasized cameras and the importance of integration — particularly for a large, open campus such as Virginia Tech University, that poses unique challenges in securing its infrastructure. “You have to prepare for internal and external issues. Cameras can detect before, during and after an incident. If you have a timeline that you can see what happened and what is happening, that can help,” Fiel said.



A Proactive Approach

The impact of an incident such as the shooting at Virginia Tech encompasses a large list of losses, Nixon explained, including clean-up and public relations costs, lost wages, insurance rates, lawsuits, and most importantly, lives. “The financial impact after an incident such as this is 100 times more costly than the costs of prevention,” he added.

Nixon also said that forming alliances and relationships with associations and industry organizations, such as the National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence or IACLEA, can be a helpful aid for dealers and integrators in learning about and addressing the specific needs of a market.