When The Crime Scene Tape Gets Cut - 5 Steps To Take Action Now

As soon as 911 is called, the property no longer belongs to you. Despite some public opinion, Law Enforcement Departments across the country are professional, dedicated and disciplined society. When they come to you, they come with a purpose and motivation to help and to stop threats that could hurt others. So when you do call 911, for whatever reason, prepare yourself and your mind for their arrival.

(For the purposes of this article we will focus on Serious Incident Events at the workplace. But, these steps and information can easily be instituted at your home, church or any other location people frequent.)

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Imagine for a moment that your home, your place of work, your business is the scene of a major incident. 

• Structure Fire
• Active Shooter
• Armed Robbery
• Home Invasion

Once on the scene of a major or serious incident and once the event or violence has been stopped, your home, office, place of work is now a crime scene and belongs to the Police Department. Have you thought about what you will do next? Have you taken the time to identify what constitutes an “emergency situation?” Do you have a plan in place to take care of your loved ones, co-workers and employees?

During a serious incident, remember that you won’t be able to re-enter the location until that scene has been released by the police department. Take the moment to process this next statement; you cannot retrieve personal belongings, no cell phone, no house or car keys, no purse or man bag, just what you have on your person. Do you have a plan in place for simple things you can find comfort in? Being able to call a loved one to tell them you are safe? If it’s winter, will you have access to a warm jacket or sweater? If it’s summer, will you have the ability to get something cold to drink? (Not alcohol. That’s part of the recovery phase we’ll talk about another time. ?? )

Serious Incident Response

You need to identify the steps necessary to implement a response to all serious incidents defined from within your organization. Understand the sensitive and volatile nature of the topic and process that not everyone’s traumatic event raises to that level for the next person. In law enforcement we get calls for service from people that have witnessed heavy assaults, even murders, and they are calm on the 911 call. We also have people calling screaming into the phone ready to have a heart attack because they’re watching their neighbors blow leaves onto their property. Both are suffering a traumatic event, to them, both handle things differently. When you do begin to address the topic, and it’s imperative that you do, take both extreme personalities into consideration when delivering the training or information. Your safety, the safety of your co-workers or employees is paramount and each one of us needs to take on that social responsibility.

5 Steps To Begin To Think About And Put Into Place

It'll Be Too Late To Wait!

Step 1. Identification Of Critical Incidents  

Start by defining what an emergency or serious incident event means for you and clearly spell out the steps to handle them, this is called an Action Plan. Remember, not all bad situations necessitate the triggering of the Action Plan, but if you don't define what does, too much time will be wasted when someone needs help. 

We discuss creating an Action Plan further, here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/instituting-workplace-violence-action-plan-target-4-chris-marciano/

Step 2. Emergency Reporting Procedures

Clearly define the reporting requirements and procedures for each of the defined Serious Incident Event you’ve defined in Phase 1. Then, clearly establish a clear chain of command within your organization and a concise reporting system.

Very Important: Identify someone to be your point person. During major incidents this person is responsible for communicating with the emergency personnel on scene. During incidents that you’ve defined to be serious but emergency personnel are not involved, this person is responsible “check all the boxes.”

Step 3. Activating The Emergency Reporting System

Based on the information you’ve developed and built in steps 1 and 2 you must now clearly define your emergency threat levels. Each threat level must have corresponding procedure and means of communication. It’s imperative that these steps are clearly defined. If you have outsourced certain responsibilities to other companies, PR firms, legal, technical security firms, etc, you must coordinate this step with them. Failure to do this will result in a complete collapse when the world is blowing up around you.

Step 4. Post Incident

In our opinion one of the most vital steps during the entire Serious Incident Event is what happens after. It’s impossible to evaluate the damage done here until you come face to face with it.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing – Take the time to spell out the steps and procedures to organize a debriefing. This process must deal with the emotional and/or psychological fallout that your company, even your family will have experienced when exposed to a traumatic event. This debriefing must happen as soon after the event as possible, talking within three days tops of the event. NOT the day of the event, everyone needs some time to process in their own way.

Post Event Location Re-Entry – The event is over and emergency services is clearing out. Now what? You must clearly define a protocol with the steps to be taken when that location (i.e crime scene) has been released back to you by law enforcement. The person (s) you’ve identified in the earlier steps must be prepared for what they will see when they walk back in. It will not smell the same, it will not look the same, it will not feel the same and honestly, it may never be the same again.

Important: Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Agencies do not clean up messes. If there is blood, dirty rubber gloves, used medical equipment, bloody close, that do not contain evidentiary value, they will be left behind. It is your responsibility to clean it up.

Clearly Define The Steps And Protocols To:

1. Document The Aftermath
2. Safeguard And Return Personal Belongings -
3. Cover Yourselves On Cash Retrieval. There Should Be No Opportunity For Questionable Behavior Here.
4. Limit your liability

Step 5. Training, Testing And Exercise

Following the development and clear identification of the previous 4 steps you must execute a training program broken into three different categories

• Pre-Incident
• During Incident
• Post Incident

Make sure that all training session work from your action plans and emergency protocols and that they all work hand in hand. Take the time to train your senior leadership with in person training programs. Front line staff, can, if necessary be trained through an online program that you can develop.

Like in school, back in the day, learning means nothing if you’re not tested. In our business testing and exercise work best with hand’s on scenario-based situations, all done in a controlled environment. There are so many “realistic” yet safe ways to train out there, take the time to research them and make the right decision for the safety of those you are responsible for.

Revisit your Action Plans, Operations Protocols, Leadership Concerns And Training Methods Yearly. We Are Not Discussing A 9 To 5 Movement Here. The Criminal Element And The Dangers That Face Our Families, Friends And Communities Change By The Minute. 

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