NEW YORK -- What would your store clerk do facing the wrong side of a gun barrel? Convenience store employees typically have less than a minute to do everything right in the event of a robbery. That means not escalating the already-existing danger. Rather, employees should use their senses to take everything in, according to armed-robbery security expert and former law-enforcement officer John D. Moore.
It also means taking note of the suspect's height, clothing, weapon, following the robber's instructions and refraining from resisting or chasing [image-nocss] the culprit. If the store associate has been properly trained by a company that has documented policies and procedures, there is a better chance of all of the above. Moore offered a detail-rich presentation called Is Your Store Safe? during a CSPNetwork CyberConference sponsored by Corporate Safe Specialists. Click here to view an OnDemand replay of this CSPNetwork CyberConference (free for retailers; all others pay $49).
The program followed a recent incident in which a c-store employee in New York turned on her assailant by grabbing an axe, prompting the would-be felon to flee. In that case, Moore was explicit: Instead of praising the store associate, Moore said had that employee worked for him, she would have been fired for not following procedure and for raising the level of danger and decreasing the level of control.
Knowing how to temper holdups is a big deal in the convenience channel. According to FBI figures, c-stores were held up more than 19,000 times in 2006, noted CSS marketing director Wes Wernette. Weapons were used in 59% of the incidents, the FBI found, and the average loss was $761.
That's not even including the physical and emotional damage to your employees, or any structural damage, Wernette said.
Moore, the author of 14 technical security manuals on armed robbery and related emergency situations for high-risk business employees, saidthat a company must, above all, have documented policies and procedures in place if for nothing else, to help in a legal proceeding. If I get subpoenaed, this is what I'm going to be looking for, he said.
For actual training, Moore recommended role-playing and the periodic quizzing of employees. For instance, when doing what he called short-duration training, 90 seconds or so, ask employees not whether they will give money when it's demanded, but how will they give the money?
Moore said myth-busting is the first step to preparing employees for best practices during a robbery.
The top three widely accepted notions, he said, are don't look at a robber, don't speak with a robber and don't set off the alarm. They're all wrong, he said, because one of the best ways to remain uninjured is to establish a relationship with the suspect. However, if specifically told not to look or talk, don't. Of critical importance, though, is communicating in whatever way possible an employee's intentions. And when going to the cash register, Moore emphasized, Before you reach, make sure the bad guy knows what you're doing.
Alarms should be tested regularly, and they should be set off when the employee deems it safe to do so. If there is more than one alarm button, they all should be activated, said Moore. No two situations are the same; thus, Moore said, every employee should use his or her best judgment in all decisions.
Resistance, either active or passiveverbal comments or sudden, unusual movementsraises the possibility of injury, as does chasing the suspect as he or she leaves. Moore cited numbers showing that 57% of injuries are caused from active resistancerestraining or attackingand 41% from passive.
Lock the door and call the police after a robber leaves, said Moore. Incident report forms should be structured starting with descriptions of the head of the robber, on down to the shoes. Employees should write down memories as soon as possible and not discuss the incident until after filling out the reports.
To aid employees, companies should install height markers on door frames, post bilingual warning stickers on safes and windows (though not amid several other stickers). Preparation begins with security surveys of the property, starting at the periphery of the parking lot, and including the surrounding area (setback dimensions, alleys, lighting, etc.) and done at day and night.
In response to a question from a conference attendee about clerks being forced to leave the store with the suspect, Moore said in his 20 years in the store-security business, the question was the most-asked but the occurrence of hostage-taking was the least frequent.
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