Preventing Workplace Violence Not One-Size-Fits-All Exercise: Risk Management Experts

Businesses are now required to implement robust workplace violence prevention plans in California under a new law that became effective in July 2024. But risk management experts warn that compliance needs to be more than a check-the-box exercise if lives are to be saved. It is a lesson that should be understood by businesses across all 50 states, they say.

Paul Hatcher, chief executive officer and founder of Merrill Herzog, the crisis management specialist, warns that prevention of workplace violence is not a one-size-fits-all exercise. “There are law firms that know nothing about prevention of active shooter risks, which have been selling a ‘compliant’ template online for $150 to businesses in California.” (See related article: A Review of California’s Workplace Violence Prevention Law).

He said a plan needs to be an actionable, living document and not one that sits on the shelf.

Hatcher was discussing how businesses can remain compliant with , which has been in effect since July 1, 2024. But businesses across the country can also benefit by implementing their own plans, similar to what is required by the law to help prevent workplace violence.

Wyoming-headquartered Merrill Herzog often works closely with Gabriel, an Israel-based security technology company, to develop risk prevention protocols. Further, they often partner with specialty insurers, such as Chaucer, and Samphire Risk, the managing general agent, which include loss prevention and risk mitigation services as part of their active assailant insurance policies.

“Preparation, planning, and prevention for these horrific events can ultimately save lives, and insurance is leading the way as a forcing function to help organizations do just that,” said Hatcher. “The harsh reality is most attacks could have been prevented had the early warning signs simply been identified, communicated, and dealt with properly. The earlier you can identify a potential or actual threat, the higher the probability that you can stop it.”

Lives can be saved through simple awareness, he added.

It is important that businesses ensure they have the proper procedures and policies in place and that these plans are actionable, rather than creating a document of 300 pages, which just sits on a shelf gathering dust like many organizations have, Hatcher said.

“We work with those organizations to help them create actionable policies that will both protect them in the immediate situation and then also post-incident when everybody gets sued because everybody will get sued.”

And then there’s the training, which Hatcher said includes everything from the tactical side of training such as run, hide, and fight to emergency medical training. Also included are tabletop exercises and full-scale exercises with local law enforcement integration.

“We have an acute focus on not looking at what everybody else has done, per se, to check the box, but work to actually build a product that helps protect people and save lives. That has been our goal. And so every time we step into a new organization, we look at it and go, ‘Is this fit for purpose? Does it work?’ Because the policies and procedures are not one size fits all,” Hatcher said.

For active assailant, he said, Merrill Herzog’s main role is to prevent attacks via security audits and technology integration which involves working with an organization like Gabriel and its founder and CEO Yoni Sherizen.

Gabriel provides the technology while Merrill Herzog helps identify where the organization needs panic buttons and cameras. “And then we integrate our services together to create a comprehensive active shooter or active assailant mitigation program, if that’s what the clients want,” Hatcher explained.

“Couple that with insurance, and you’ve mitigated, transferred risk like no other program out there,” he said.

Sherizen described the work of Merrill Herzog and Gabriel with the re/insurer Chaucer as taking an historic step in preventing mass shootings and other active assailant threats because the product incentivizes preventative measures, rather than simply paying for the consequences of these deadly events.

Insureds that buy active assailant cover from Chaucer have the benefit of the risk management services offered by Merrill Herzog and Gabriel. “Those insureds get real-time crisis management support through Gabriel’s automated alerting platform that loops in with the Merrill Herzog response team,” Sherizen said.

Early Detection

“Merrill Herzog doesn’t do gates, guards, and guns. We’re not a security firm, and we don’t do technology or installation of cameras. We are advisers on risk,” Hatcher said. “We come in from a ground truth perspective of how can a business deter, detect, and delay an attacker coming.”

Having cameras on a premises isn’t enough. They record an incident and don’t stop an attack and mass shooters don’t care if they’re on camera, both risk executives affirmed.

Gabriel goes far beyond cameras by creating a back-end integration of various systems, which, using artificial intelligence, includes early detection of an active shooter. Gabriel also provides panic buttons, which include shot detectors, and video cameras, which provide emergency monitoring once the panic button is hit.

Gabriel’s hub leverages AI, smart automation as well as human intelligence. “There are two sides to the coin, but we often say we’re ‘trigger agnostic,'” according to Sherizen at Gabriel.

For example, the Gabriel platform kicks in if the camera spots a weapon, if an access control system identifies someone trying to get into the building, or if a former employee is trying to use key cards to gain access, he said, noting that the platform automates all the critical things that have to happen at the same time.

When a threat has been detected, the Gabriel system automatically alerts key stakeholders. “Once a threat has been verified, then law enforcement is immediately contacted,” Sherizen said.

Gabriel’s system doesn’t just provide camera monitoring it provides a virtual command, based on what a first responder would want to have: a floor map for the entire building that shows where the assailant is in real time. In addition, the dashboard provides a breakdown of emergency action plans, who to contact with all needed emergency and medical numbers. Everything the crisis team needs is in the palm of their hands, Sherizen said.

And last but not least, Gabriel provides real-time communications chat within the application, so the crisis team can communicate with staff and the victims.

During an emergency, the crisis team in charge has the ability to send responding law enforcement via text or email a web-based link to the real-time situation, Hatcher said, explaining that it is a single time share link which goes away after the incident to provide privacy along with an immediate response.

Everything happens in parallel, rather than sequentially as has been tradition. Under the normal processes for such attacks, someone will see something, phone security, and security will pull up the camera system and finally go to their access control system and lock the doors, Sherizen said. That sequence of events leads to critical lost time, chaos, and people at greater risk of being harmed in a best-case scenario, he added. “In the worst-case scenario, there will be actual damage to people, property, and the business.”

Sherizen said Gabriel aims to leverage technology in an unobtrusive way “to get ahead of these threats by picking up on suspicious behavior, suspicious activity, objects, etc., and then automating the workflow from there,” without creating a prison-like environment for businesses.

“Most of us grew up with fire alarms and fire drills, or depending where in the world you live, tornado drills. We learned [that] when you have the alert, you do X, everything will be okay. Unfortunately, [for] our children and in today’s workplaces, the threats have become very dynamic and change from second to second,” Sherizen said.

“So, we need new technological tools in order to be able to manage that and have the situational awareness and the ability to communicate in real time, to get people away from danger, and as danger evolves, to continue to update information and alerts to keep people safe.”

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