Active Shooter Preparedness Resources: Businesses and Critical Infrastructure Partners

This Active Shooter Preparedness: Access & Functional Needs - What You Should Know video provides insightful information for critical infrastructure owners and operators to better understand the unique and complex challenges that persons with disabilities, and access and functional needs face during an active shooter incident.

This video is also available in other languages, visit our Translated Active Shooter Preparedness Products and Resources Page.

With the goal of helping a business or organization better prepare to minimize disruption of service and maintain normal business operations during an emergency or crisis, the Business Continuity Planning Suite aims to create, update, or improve an organization’s business continuity plan. The suite provides an overview on business continuity planning, prepares users to write their own plan, and has tools to generate a plan tailored to their specific organization.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities face a unique set of challenges in an active shooter incident. These incidents have no patterns in victim selection or method, creating an unpredictable and quickly evolving situation that can lead to loss of life and injury.

Numerous factors associated with hospital and healthcare environments complicate traditional response to active shooter incidents, including the “duty-to-care”, also known as “duty-to-act”, commitment and the varying levels of patient mobility and patient special needs. Additionally, staff must consider response planning for patients that require the greatest allocation of resources, as well as the unique characteristics within the hospital and healthcare environment.

Visit this Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities Action Guide for more information.

The Pathway to Violence provides information regarding the behavior indicators that assailants often demonstrate before a violent act.

Below are several resources regarding Patron Protection:

• The Protecting Infrastructure During Public Demonstrations Fact Sheet offers security recommendations for businesses that may be the target of unlawful acts during public demonstrations. The document provides options for consideration to mitigate risk and access to CISA resources to assist with decision-making.
• The Protecting Patrons in Outdoor Eating Venues Sheet identifies security measures for restaurants that choose to conduct business outside. Restrictions in operations from COVID-19 have forced restaurants to set up tables outside, creating a potential vulnerability of an attack.  This product identifies various potential threats such as vehicle ramming, including security measures restaurants and the municipality can enforce to help mitigate the threat, and actions to take if an attack occurs.
• The Protecting Patrons During the Holiday Shopping Season Fact Sheet advises shopping venues and employees to re-assess security practices due to an increase of patrons in shopping venues during the holidays.

The Personal Security Considerations Action Guide: Critical Infrastructure Workers helps critical infrastructure workers assess their security posture and provide options to consider whether they are on or off the job. This action guide provides actionable recommendations and resources intended to prevent and mitigate threats to a critical infrastructure worker’s personal safety.

The Physical Security Considerations for Temporary Facilities Fact Sheet helps temporary facilities— defined as those that are established for set time frames for hosting a venue— navigate their unique security challenges due to their provisional nature. The dynamic threat environment, inclusive of international and domestic violent extremists emphasizing attacks in public gathering locations, further underscore the importance of incorporating security measures to keep facilities and people safe.

The Fact Sheet also informs operators how to determine if the facility has a security plan in place, if existing protective measures provide necessary security for the event, and how to conduct a vulnerability assessment to identify and prioritize areas of concern that need to be addressed. In addition, it provides cost-effective protective measures to mitigate identified vulnerabilities and enhance security, and access to resources to support decision-making.

Office for Victims of Crime: “A comprehensive preparedness and security program should consider methods to support victims following an incident. There are a multitude of federal resources that assist in promoting justice and healing for victims. For example, the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) helps communities prepare for, and respond to, victims of mass violence events – including an active shooter incident – with checklists, a compendium of resources, and other pertinent victim-related materials with the Mass Violence Toolkit. Additionally, OVC provides free training and technical assistance on its toolkit to public and non-profit entities. Finally, OVC provides the Vicarious Trauma Toolkit, which enhances individuals and organizations’ understanding of the impacts of vicarious trauma, and how to locate tools to help strengthen agency response.