Many owners and executives in charge of bars and restaurant always ask me, “How much security is enough?”. The answer is basic, but not simple. Security should be part of every employee’s job, be documented as so, and practiced regularly regardless of the size and scope of your venue and you should have a basic written Security Plan in place. Security is more than employees in a security uniform.
Standard of Care
Any lawsuit against a venue will typically be for some form of negligence allegation or for an intentional act by an employee. The standard of care which is a legal component comes under scrutiny at the time of trial. Standard of care refers to many different things including common practices within the venue’s region (competitors) or nationally. In other words, what do your competitors do and what security measures and equipment do they have as compared to your venue. If the majority of your area similar competitors have security posted at the ingress/egress point and your venue does not, that is considered a breach of the standard of care in most jurisdictions.
Laws and ordinances also become important in that a Plaintiff will attempt to demonstrate that you did not follow local fire codes, business licensing or operational requirements, or that the venue committed criminal offenses related to their case or as an ongoing practice. Violations of codes and ordinances can, and sometimes do create a condition that may involve a judge ruling on liability before a jury even hears the evidence or testimony. An extreme example is the 2003 Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Industry standards, best practices or guidance publications are also part of the standard of care and will surely be referenced by a Plaintiff’s security expert to attempt to demonstrate your venue did not consider industry published best practices and were therefore negligent. The example of a best practice is the City of West Hollywood Best Safety Practices for Nightlife Establishments published in 2018.
CCTV or surveillance equipment, alarm systems, access controls all play a part in the standard of care analysis. Notwithstanding the current supply chain issues, the availability of those electronics allows for easy implementation of those security measures found in most other venues as a comparison to your venue.
The most common standard breached in bars and nightclubs is some form of breach of the self-imposed standards or policies and procedures for your venue. If you do not have a written security plan that will be exploited by Plaintiff at the time of trial. If your security plan does not cover response to basic and common incidents such as fights or violent crimes, that will be criticized at the time of trial also.
If for some reason you had a written policy or procedure that was not followed related to an incident in litigation, that will certainly be problematic. Written policies and procedures do not have to be elaborate but rather should be thoughtful, promote safety of patrons, include response to common incidents, and be inclusive of all employees. The most effective case I was involved in was when the owner of a nightclub trained all employees in safety and security, had it well documented, and had each employee sign a separate document for adherence and included in their HR file.
Foreseeability
Foreseeability is probably the most important element of any lawsuit. A Plaintiff must prove that the incident under review could be reasonably anticipated would occur. This is typically established through local police department subpoenas for police call data or Calls for Service and corresponding police reports. Plaintiff’s will attempt to establish that there was a history of incidents similar to the one in litigation to demonstrate a venue knew that incidents had occurred and that nothing was done in response. The more police calls found, the higher the exposure.
A simple process any venue owner can implement is a call to the local crime prevention officer of the police withing your jurisdiction. A request for an annual or quarterly police call summary will reveal what the actual police response is and allow a venue to mitigate any trends or patterns. Plaintiffs, almost always obtain this to establish foreseeability. These police call summaries will reveal that an owner is not always told of incidents in their venues or outside areas including those where patrons report to the police but not the venue. The local crime prevention officer can also assist you in reducing police calls to your venue.
Bar logs and incident reports are also subject to scrutiny to determine incident history and if a venue took any mitigation strategy to reduce or eliminate incidents of fights or disorderly incidents. Bar logs will show mitigation strategies especially if the owner makes entries mandating those mitigation strategies.
Security personnel
In a negligence action, the allegation is typically that you had too many security personnel responding (Excessive force) or that there was an insufficient number of security personnel on duty and there was a failure to respond. The published best practices call for someone with security responsibility for every 50-75 customers present.
Not all venues need an actual security guard or host. If there is no history of incidents including police response and there are only 1-2 employees on duty, it most likely does not require a uniformed security presence. It then becomes even more important that whoever is on duty has been trained and is knowledgeable in the written security plan. I would suggest that all security personnel on duty be readily identifiable as security and be easily seen in surveillance video. Although black attire is the most common, it is the worst color for video playback in court. Many venues have gone to the yellow and black colors with prominent “Security” across the back of the uniform shirt.
Again, every employee in the venue has some form of security responsibility if not just the observe and report function. Testimony by employees at trial is very effective if the employee knows they had security and safety responsibilities and followed them. Knowing what your competitors do for security staffing is also important to determine staffing needs, if any.
Key Takeaways
- Know what your competitors are doing as it relates to security measures. A goal should be to exceed the common practices without being excessive.
- Research published best practices and standards and be knowledgeable in them when you design mitigation strategies
- Know your local fire and business codes and assure compliance.
- Have a written security plan that includes protocols for response to common incidents and crimes and that identifies security and safety is everyone’s job.
- Obtain local police call data for your business, analyze it for any trends or patterns, and design mitigation strategies to reduce or eliminate incidents. Utilize the local police crime prevention officer for resources.
- Determine if you need actual security personnel, if you are within the common staffing level regionally, and assure your security personnel are easily identifiable.
Alan W. Zajic, CPP, CSP, ICPS, is the founder and owner of AWZ Consulting. He has over 35 years of experience specializing in hospitality, gaming, nightclubs and retail security environments. His practice areas include forensic consulting, management consulting, major incident management, policy and procedure development and he conducts tailored training programs for gaming and nightclub operations.
Alan is presenting “Violence in Nightclubs, Bars & Restaurants – Steps to Mitigate” at this year’s Bar & Restaurant Expo.
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