Lone Wolf Workplace Violence

What do the American Reproductive Center, a fertility treatment center in Palm Springs, California, and the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC have in common?

The two organizations serve different purposes, and clients. And they’re located thousands of miles apart. So at first glance, not much. 

Yet, both were targeted, less than a week apart in shocking acts of workplace violence. Those acts of violence, committed by persons unaffiliated with the organizations, were driven by grievance in order to make a political point. 

Both acts of workplace violence were community sourced (type 1) as they were committed by someone unconnected to the organization, who came to the location with the intent to commit a crime.

Both attacks were carried out by a “lone wolf” attacker as a means of drawing attention to their political grievances. Both acts have also been labeled as domestic terrorism.

The Challenges Presented by Lone Wolf Workplace Violence

Lone wolf attackers don’t share their plans or act in conjunction with others. So there’s no one who can come forward in advance of the attack to expose their plans.

Neither attacker preceded their attacks with threats against the organization they targeted, which could have alerted the organization, or law enforcement, to their plans to target those organizations. 

And despite law enforcement’s greater access to resources than employers have, law enforcement was unaware of the attackers before the attacks.

Can Lone Wolf Workplace Violence Attacks Be Prevented?

Without the ability to identify a potential threat in advance, there’s no easy way to prevent those attacks.

One can model the risk of different hypothetical types of attacks. Kind of like in the movie War Games, and use that to identify some conceptual prevention strategies. 

But since most employers don’t have supercomputers to quickly and efficiently run various types of attack scenarios, at best, you’re still guessing as to how and why a lone wolf attack might happen, and what can work to prevent it. 

What about hardening the targets? 

Hardening the target is the term for making it more difficult for an attacker to physically access a workplace. Typically hardening the target focuses on access control, limiting ingress and egress, and weapons detection, using metal detectors.

The Capital Jewish Museum had a large security staff on site. But, the attacker purchased a ticket online for the event providing him entry to the building that day, and he wore dress clothes helping him to blend in.

And, he waited until after the event ended, and people had already headed outside the building, when he initiated his attack. Instead of fleeing, the attacker in order to take credit for the attack walked back inside and sat down after shooting the innocent victims.

What about the clinic in Palm Springs?

The attacker pulled his explosive laden vehicle into the parking lot where clients and patients park. He then detonated the explosives almost immediately. He never tried to enter the building, or engage with any employees before detonating the bomb. 

And what if he couldn’t accessed the parking lot because it had some kind of control? He would have been able to pull right up to the front of the building, since it’s located on a public street.

Risk Reduction

As an employer, it’s easiest to look at lone wolf workplace violence and think there’s nothing we can do, so why bother trying to prevent it.

But, even the slightest change to the dynamic of a lone wolf workplace violence attack can change its outcome. So reparation and training still matter.

Here’s some areas to focus on with your employees:

•  Start with situational awareness training. The ability to recognize a safety hazard when it first unfurls is the only chance you have to avoid the attack, or to intercede and lessen the physical harm. Recognizing and reacting to a potential safety threat is not automatic, but it is a skill that can be learned and implemented with practice.
•  Monitor places of ingress and egress, including parking areas. A member of the public intent on inflicting harm needs a place to start, and those are the highest percentage locations. Most employers don’t have budgets or personnel for live camera monitoring. But, you can increase the ability to monitor these locations by having employee work areas face those locations.
•  Develop exit strategies. Identifying where to go and how to get to an exit allows your employees the ability to create some distance from harm. And you don’t have to exit the building completely to accomplish that harm reduction. 
•  Develop a company wide warning system. Whether it’s IM’s, buzzers, or any other approach, that allows you to immediately alert the people quickly can help save your employees from physical harm.

Workplace violence prevention resources:

Not sure what you need to do to implement an effective workplace violence prevention program? My free California employers workplace violence prevention checklist will help you focus on just what you need to do.  

California Workplace Violence Prevention Manual is available on Amazon. A great resource for California employers to make sure you’re getting your workplace violence prevention program right.

Would you like step-by-step training to take you through the process of outlining your California compliant workplace violence prevention plan. This workshop will take you through creating an effective workplace violence prevention program.  

California doesn’t just require that you develop a workplace violence prevention plan. You’ve got to train your employees too. My free Training on Demystifying Strategies to Avoid Physical Harm will help you navigate the most important; yet, least understood training requirement in California’s workplace violence prevention law. 

Investigation Resources. 

Looking to improve your staff’s ability to conduct internal investigations. My free Internal investigations checklist will help them make sure that they are getting it right. 

For plaintiff law firms looking to maximize cases results will find these investigation two resources super helpful. 

6 Steps to More Effective Interviews. This free guide takes you through ensuring that you maximize the amount of information you get from each witness interview. 

Effective Litigation Investigations is available on Amazon. All of the skills and knowledge that I developed on the art and science of case preparation investigations that lead to maximum case settlements and jury awards that I developed during 30 years of conducting litigation investigations.