July 21, 2021 by Nicole Bell

How To Harden Soft Target Locations

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Industries: Education Healthcare Hospitality

Topics: PSAPs Public Safety Applications

What is a Soft Target?

A soft target is a location or place that is vulnerable due to its lack of security or protection, though is often populated by groups of people. To understand the threats posed to soft targets, it’s important to identify what makes them susceptible to intimidation and acts of violence and terrorism.

Soft Targets Versus Hard Targets

Examples of soft target locations include libraries, malls, movie theaters, and houses of worship, as well as public venues and events. Each location allows public access to anyone who wishes to enter.

On the other hand, an example of a soft target that transitions into a hard target is the airport. In most airports, the check-in and baggage claim areas are widely accessible to the public, making them both more susceptible to violent activity. The airport becomes a hard target location to travelers only once they’ve made it past the point of security. The standard airport security process in the United States includes full-body scanners and/or metal detectors and a thorough search of all traveler belongings through computer tomography (CT) scanners.

The Risk for Soft Targets

Soft target locations are mostly at risk for their welcoming environments. The risk of violence is particularly high in places where modern conflict is apparent, such as churches, synagogues, and mosques. 

“People may go to a house of worship and have a mindset that it’s not going to happen here,” former law enforcement officer Marianne Alvarez told the Huffington Post. “It’s a place where you feel safe. It’s a sanctuary. [If an attack does occur] it’s a huge shock and they might freeze.”

Not surprisingly, additional challenges are forced upon the facility managers of religious and government organizations. Because religious buildings are commonly designated as historical landmarks, there are often restrictions on how the facade and interior can be modified. Working around cosmetic restrictions, a common security-enhancing strategy for hardening soft target locations is the implementation of technology.

Hardening Soft Target Locations

No one person can be solely responsible for hardening soft target locations. To be successful in this initiative, there must be a never-ending commitment from law enforcement, community officials, employers, event coordinators, and public citizens alike. Here are proven strategies that can be applied by the whole community to enhance security at soft target locations:

Prevention:

–  Anonymous tip-texting: These tools are often leveraged by agencies and organizations to empower their people to share information and prevent dangerous situations from happening in the first place. 

–  Security Metal Detectors: are used to detect weapons from entering a populated facility or event to prevent an attack. These systems are widely used in schools, courthouses, airports as well as private and public events.

–  Monitoring Social Media: Information found on the internet can provide insight into the potential behavior and intentions of event attendees, especially if the event is focused on sensitive or political topics. It can also help public officials plan ahead to ensure they have enough event safety staff by estimating the total number of attendees listed on social media event pages.

Mitigation:

–  Panic Button Systems: Modern technology has proven to facilitate a faster response to unprecedented crises at soft target locations, such as a panic button mobile app designed to enhance coordination between facility staff members and first responders. Take a city’s public library for example. If an attack were to occur, a library staff witness could activate the app to simultaneously notify all other onsite employees and first responders with the push of a button.

–  SMS Opt-in Systems: At the most recent Kentucky Derby, event organizers used an SMS opt-in system where Derby attendees could text a short code to be opted-in to event communications. An important note to make is the necessity to increase the perceived value of the system to attendees by incorporating relevant non-emergency communications (e.g. traffic issues) as well – often opting in to solely receive safety messages is not as strong a message as one that is perceived as having more immediate value.

–  Facility Floor Mapping: Comprehensive data about a soft target location can be entered into a facility profile database. When an emergency call is received, the 911 call taker accesses the data and passes it onto first responders traveling to the scene of the incident. A facility profile database enables incident managers to upload details about the layout of the business and the best access points, floor plans, utility shut-off points, AED locations and alarm information. Contact information for incident managers and security personnel should also be included, as well as access codes and potential hazards. 

–  Mass Notification: Throughout the duration of an emergency incident, law enforcement and incident managers can leverage a mass notification system to maintain two-way communication with employees via voice, SMS messaging and email – ensuring maximum situational awareness and enabling employees in need of assistance to receive help in the fastest time possible.

The A.L.I.C.E. Plan

In addition to leveraging a mass notification system for faster communication, there are measures that can applied by the public to minimize the impact of an attack as well.

For instance, the ALICE training institute is a solution that every member of a community can endorse. ALICE is a program run by former law enforcement officer Marianne Alvarez that aims to prepare institutions for an active shooter event.  Alvarez once worked as the director of security at a church and has included houses of worship in her preparedness training. ALICE is an acronym that stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate, which is the cornerstone of Alvarez’s plan to strengthen security and response at soft target locations during a violent attack.

The ALICE methodology can also be integrated with your communication plan. Such an integration may include isolating or locking out an assailant, countering by any means possible even if it is merely distraction, evacuating to safety as the opportunity arises, enabling those who evacuated to virtually confirm they are safe, as well as enforcing a constant flow of communication with those still in danger.

Timely and Accurate Communication 

In preparation for a violent incident, it is critical to consider the time it will likely take for first responders to arrive at the scene, especially in locations where only a small number of law enforcement officers are on duty at a given time.

Timely and accurate communication at the start of an attack and throughout the incident is critical to preventing the spread of confusion, injury and false rumors. Specifically in the case of an active shooter incident, most of the fatalities will occur within the first 3 minutes of the attack.

A Whole Community Effort

Recent events have posed increased security risks to soft target venues like houses of worship and other public and community spaces. Law enforcement, safety managers, and communities alike can implement some of these strategies for hardening soft target locations to try and prepare for these events, and by rethinking emergency preparedness in the case of these soft-target attacks, will look to minimize the hurt and damage.

The nature of soft targets makes them difficult to protect, and every emergency management team must decide which practices and strategies to implement. It’s important that the public understands these safety practices, and while the recent attacks on soft targets are a matter of concern, there are ways to be proactive when it comes to protecting these public institutions and spaces. 

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