Hotels continue to be soft targets of extremists and terrorists, especially in politically instable markets. The latest attack came Friday when gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu in Bamako, Mali. Twenty-one people reportedly were killed, including the gunmen who took scores of hostages before being defeated by Malian special forces, ending the siege.
As hoteliers continue to grapple with the very difficult questions about how best to prepare for such unexpected attacks, HOTELS reached out to security expert Mac Segal, senior security and safety consultant for AS Solutions, Herlev, Denmark, for his insights on how to best secure hotels moving forward. Here is the text of his commentary:
“There is no blame to be placed but on the cowardly perpetrators of the unspeakable act of terror that begun this morning in Mali. It is unreasonable and unrealistic to expect any hotel security officer to effectively engage and neutralize an attack that begins with a vehicle bearing diplomatic plates pulling up to the hotel vehicle entrance point and gunmen indiscriminately opening fire with assault rifles.
Does this mean that short of turning hotels into fortresses, we are doomed to suffer additional such attacks? The answer is an unequivocal, ‘no.’ There are measures that can be taken to mitigate the risk of attacks similar to what are witnessing in Mali without negatively affecting the guest experience at the hotel.”
Here, in broad brush strokes, follow some security concepts that should be considered for hotels moving forward.
Security Layers
Effective security is made up of layers. In terms of hotels this can be broken down into: Periphery, outer perimeter, inner perimeter, exterior and interior. Each of these layers or rings, are susceptible to a variety of threats and risks and intelligent proactive security measures need to implement to reduce these risks and ensure the safety of the guests and staff.
An example of a periphery threat is hostile surveillance. It is rare that any hostile act takes place without prior intelligence gathering by the attackers. They monitor and evaluate various potential targets, identifying strengths and weaknesses and then select the most attractive one with the highest chance for success. This may take the form of two people sitting in a vehicle across the road from the hotel watching or taking pictures.
If security personnel are trained in surveillance detection they may well identify the hostile surveillance at an early stage and by taking appropriate steps, avoid the attack before it even gets into the planning stage.
Time & Distance
An essential element of controlling and containing a hostile attack is creating time and distance between the attackers and potential victims. The longer it takes the attackers to reach their victims, the greater the chance that law enforcement or other first responders can reach the site and neutralize the threat. This can be accomplished through having the appropriate physical measures installed such as gates, fences, doors, etc. that are appropriate means, secure, and not ugly or threatening.
Another aspect of creating time and distance is ensuring there is a lock down procedure in place. This means that if the staff inside the hotel hears gunfire or an explosion outside, they should be able to lock down the entrance in a matter of seconds effectively locking the hostiles out. Even if the attackers can break through the doors, it will take them time and this delays the contact with the potential victims and exponentially increases the chance for escape and survival.
Emergency Procedures & Training
This is the single most important aspect of security in the event of an emergency. There is no camera that can disarm a gunman, no lock that will keep them out nor a fire escape that calls out directions to guests and guides them to the safest exit. Only properly trained personnel who are implementing correctly written emergency procedures can provide an effective response to a critical threat.
Too many security guards know how to detect a firearm or explosive but have little idea what to do should they happened to find one. In the event of a hostile attack, every single staff member in the hotel, all be they security officers or maintenance personnel, must know what to do and how to act. These emergency procedures must not be stuck in some long forgotten file room but easily accessible, well known and understood by the security manager and general management team and communicated in the way of proper and ongoing training to all hotel staff.
Correct and effective training involves much more than a 30-minute lecture in a conference room and care should be taken to ensure that the hotel staff not only understand their roles but are capable of performing them in real time.
In the event of a hostile attack, if a staff member, who is properly trained, uses the time and distance created by the lockdown procedure, to evacuate 20 guests from the pool area before the gunmen get there that is 20 less potential victims. It is not reasonable to expect people to react correctly in a high stress, life-threatening situation unless they have received the proper training.
It goes without saying that effectively protecting hotels from this type of attack requires a far more complex and in-depth conversation than this article facilitates. However, it does not change the fact that there is an urgent need for a shift in the hotel security paradigm that moves away from “security window dressing” that makes people feel safe and engages in intelligent, real world security solutions that will ensure that guest and staff stay safe, happy and productive.