Active Shooter Risk

Headlines tragically remind us quite frequently that many aspects of our lives have become unavoidably dangerous. Sadly, this danger is due to the whim of individuals and access to weaponry. The deadly risk is the "active shooter incident."

Active Shooter Incident

An active shooter incident describes a situation in which at least one person is actively killing or attempting to kill persons in a populated area. Naturally, as we are referencing a shooter, such incidents involve firearms.

Active shootings are becoming more common. Studies made by the FBI between 2000 and 2017 indicate annual mass-shooting events rose from 6.4 per year to 30 per year. Studies also show that most shootings take place within a business or school (educational) environment. The frequency of shootings is accompanied by, on average, an increase in the number of persons killed or wounded per event.

As with any other risk that becomes significant, it is very important to find a strategy to deal with active shootings. Insurance is among the tools helpful with both pre-and post-incident planning. However, much uncertainty exists regarding protection for active shooter losses.

First, there are customer expectations. Insurance consumers may be under the impression that damage and injury created by shooters are covered. Second, the insurance market is fragmented over the issue depending upon how incidents are interpreted. Coverage may be sought from existing policies that individuals, commercial or non-profit entities may already carry, including General Liability, the Liability portion of Homeowners, or Workers' Compensation. On the other hand, responsibility for harm due to a shooter may need to be covered by a form of professional liability policy as the obligation to protect against shootings may be considered as a failure to provide adequate security.

Confusion may also be caused by insurance policies via the silent coverage problem. An insurance form is considered silent when it neither specifically names nor excludes a source of loss, such as shootings. It can be chaotic during the time it takes to clarify coverage gaps.

The insurance sector has a reputation as being slow to react to change. Of course, speed is never at the level that most would wish when new coverage issues arise. However, the insurance market has been stepping up and addressing serious active shooter exposure. While there is the option of trying to amend standard policies to add protection, other ways that coverage is being addressed are separate policies that supplement insurance protection with a variety of services.

Please see below for more information on this issue.

As we mentioned, a strategy for dealing with this exposure involves a significant amount of pre- and post-incident activity. Active shooter programs commonly involve the following:

Non-Insurance Services

Pre-event

• Risk Assessment
• Employee Crisis Training

During Event

• Crisis Management
• Second (Event) Responders (those who supplement initial, emergency action of fire, medical, and police [first responders] and handle return services and site clean-up.)

Post-event

• Counseling Services
• Psychiatric Care
• Public Relations Disaster Team
• Investigation Assistance Funds (Rewards)
• Expenses for additional, temporary security measures

Insurance Services

• Liability Coverage for Lawsuits due to loss created by an active shooting incident
• Limits vary from $250,000/$500,000 up to a multi-million dollar maximum
• Business Income and Extra Expense
• Limits vary from $1 million up to $100 million
• Emergency medical care
• Rehabilitation Expenses
• Funeral and Burial Expenses

Please see below for more details regarding active shooter preparation.

We discussed what makes up an active shooter program. We wanted to expand on a couple of components.

Active Shooter Risk Assessment.

The objective is to identify access points, determine plausible outside threats to your business and evaluate existing security and precautions. The outcome is a measurement of your operation's current level of vulnerability. With an accurate snapshot of current conditions, you can then take steps to reduce deadly exposure.

Note: objectivity is very important. An assessment should be done by eyes that are fresh, free from blind spots that would reduce the ability to identify weaknesses.

Environmental Awareness

Awareness among your managers and employees is a key consideration for minimizing the danger of active shooting incidents. Thankfully, every operation's norm is a safe working environment. The task is to have a firm grasp of the default, safe position and then, be constantly aware of differences that may signal a change. The following are helpful strategies:

• Use Of Awareness Training - your workers should be taught what is needed to observe behavioral changes that may indicate danger. Recognition of changes increases the chance that developing situations may be defused.
• Use Of Awareness Reporting - Once workers know what changes to look for, they must take the next step. Changes should be reported to superiors in order to further evaluate possible threats.
• Implement Training And Regular Drills - knowing what to do if an active shooting occurs is useless if employees don't quickly react. Once safety procedures are taught, they must be reinforced with drills to embed employee responses.
• Drug Policies And Testing - due to drugs being cited as factors in some shootings, it may be prudent to establish regular testing to mitigate this source.

Marketing for this product should focus on business classes that, historically, have been most vulnerable to this exposure such as educational institutions, entertainment organizations, hotels, healthcare providers, religious institutions, retail organizations, and shows (ex. Fairs, Trade Shows, and Rodeos.) For more information, contact Williams Insurance to speak with a professional insurance agent. With over 80 years of experience, we know how to help you.