5 Key Reasons Security Gets Sued

When an attack, incident, emergency, or other life-threatening event occurs, victims and their families can turn to the courts for recourse. While companies and facility owners and operators have historically been the defendants in these cases, security companies can also be targeted.

While security firms—especially contract guard companies—work to ensure the safety of people, property, and their clients’ operations, some of these lawsuits are not entirely without merit. To shore up defenses against attacks outside and inside of a courtroom, Security Management spoke with Michael Haggard, a partner at the Haggard Law Firm and an attorney with significant experience in cases involving negligence and security companies. The following are just some of the issues that might lead to a lawsuit.

A Lack of Planning

Failing to have a crisis response or threat assessment plan is “the biggest bucket, I would say, where I see security failures and resulting lawsuits when it’s not done,” says Haggard. In modern American society, businesses have to be cognizant that violence, especially violence involving firearms, can occur at their facility or impact their people. This means that businesses have to enact effective security plans, according to Haggard.

Conducting a threat assessment of an organization’s facilities is valuable, and it enables personnel to understand what the weaknesses and threats are and how to counter them. However, a threat assessment that is not comprehensive can be a sign of negligence, too.

Training

It’s one thing to have the information, but it’s another to be effectively aware and trained in how to respond to threats. Companies should consider how they are training employees at all levels to enact response plans. The same goes for aspects of physical security—for example, are guards effectively trained on security platforms and solutions? Are they trained to spot seemingly insignificant issues, like a burned-out light bulb that could create a surveillance blind spot or a dark hiding place in a facility?

Training can also go beyond guards. Are supervisors and employees in non-security, people-facing roles trained to detect and respond to active shooters or other emergencies?

Haggard recalls a case in Tallahassee that was the result of an incel opening fire on a hot yoga class. “The manager of the shopping center had never been trained on anything,” Haggard says—which meant the manager missed various red flags that the shooter exhibited for roughly 10 minutes prior to the attack, which left two people dead. “She had no idea what to look for, no active shooter training, nothing. …Your employees need to know what to look for.”

One of the people who had been through active shooter training was one of the victims, a 20-year-old student at Florida State University. As an officer for the Pi Beta Pi sorority, she was required by the Panhellenic Society to go through the training.

“I hate that we live in a society that a young, 18-year-old needs to learn about active shooting, but you have to. Because that’s the society we live in,” Haggard says. “…The problem is the governments have left not only crime victims out in the cold, but businesses.” Businesses that are targeted and victimized by an active shooter can also struggle to reopen and return business to normal, he adds.

Documentation

If security plans and training can help personnel be prepared for an attack, documentation is what can prove that an organization has remained on top of security.

“The only way you’re going to make sure that someone is looking at those lights, monitoring surveillance systems, and doing their patrols is by having a comprehensive document system where those are checked,” Haggard says. “…That’s incredibly important.”

Crime Trends

“One of the number one things in a negligent security case brought on behalf of a victim against [an organization] is you’ve got to prove foreseeability,” Haggard says. Those levying a lawsuit against a security company or organization have to prove that the crime, attack, or incident that occurred was reasonably foreseeable and that the organization could have acted to prevent or mitigate it.

For example, a retailer or department store may have conducted a threat assessment plan specific to retail theft. While the store may notice that shoplifting has increased because of the assessment, Haggard notes that if the store hasn’t considered events in the surrounding area, such as the parking lot, then it can present a problem later. “I think a lot of times there’s a negligent threat assessment plan that just isn’t comprehensive,” Haggard adds.

“What I’m amazed at in 90 percent of my cases is when I take the deposition of the store manager,” Haggard says. When Haggard asks about publicly accessible information concerning recent local crime, these managers say that they are unaware of any issues. However, a public records request of criminal activity during the past three years can indicate an increase in crimes in the surrounding area.

“All any business has to do is get the 911 calls to their location and review them every three months or every six months, and see what trends are occurring,” Haggard adds.  “The business should usually know about that because they’re the ones who should be doing an incident report every time a police officer comes. They should be checking with the police and should have that relationship with the police as to what are the trends in the area.”

Supervision

Often in lawsuits involving a guard services company, Haggard finds that instead of conducting patrols or remaining vigilant, guards are on the phone—calling, texting, or otherwise distracted.

“If you’re putting someone in charge of something important, you’ve got to have supervision over them,” Haggard says. “…I can’t tell you how many times we have a case with a security guard company and I’ve got the surveillance.” That very surveillance, or phone records or data, often shows those guards are sending texts or otherwise distracted by a smartphone, according to Haggard.

“The patrols say the same thing every time. You start subpoenaing [for] the security guards’ text messages, DMs, everything like that,” Haggard says. “They’re probably not good, so the case resolved right then and there.”

Sara Mosqueda is associate editor for Security Management. You can connect with her via LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].