Hoi Polloi wrote:I understood the article I read to have said she actually had it in her car in the parking lot.
I don't understand why the guards hadn't done anything as soon as she was past them, why the building wasn't on lock-down, why no one was announcing an active shooter in the building over the intercom... it took one brave employee to run around behind her and holler for people to flee at the great risk to his own life and safety.
The specifics have not yet been reported in this case, but the usual reasons for a failed response like the one that apparently took place in PA are:
1. There was no plan in place for a situation like this. When something this unusual happens, most people are too stunned to be able to come up with an effective action plan in time to do any good.
2. If there is a plan in place, it's in a 3 ring binder with about 1/2 inch of dust on it in the office of the safety director or HR manager. No one has opened the binder in years, and few people know it exists - sorta like the New Orleans hurricane plan during Katrina.
3. If there is a plan, no one has been trained on it and full drills have never been conducted. Without this fundamentally basic activity, it's a virtual certainty that things would go as reported in this instance. It's not just typical, it's classic.
4. Security guards have an extremely high turnover rate. 300% per year or more is not at all unusual. Even if some guards had received some training at some time, it is highly unlikely that all guards on duty on any given day have received that training. It is much more likely that none have.
Most unarmed security guards are trained and directed to carry out the functions of observation and reporting only, and are strongly prohibited from intervening directly during an event. It would be rare to find them trained to a level where they would be capable of instantaneously and competently responding to an active shooter situation in a manner that would change the outcome for the better.
Please understand that this is not a knock on security guards. Their selection, instructions and training are built around what client businesses most want and are willing to pay for. Providers of security officer services can't sell a higher level of service than what clients will buy.
The way businesses see things, courtesy officers are not expensive and competent emergency responders are. They usually don't realize that during a serious emergency, the economics of the two approaches reverse until they learn the hard way.
It's easy to criticize this thinking until you realize that it's just another version of trying to guess right instead of carrying 24/7.