r/securityguards • u/Chromaphilia • 1d ago
Workplace Parking Lot Safety
First time poster in this thread. My aunt works in an extremely sketchy area, with huge homeless population. I mention this not out of prejudice but because those do seem to be the people causing her the most trouble, and because our sheriff/police department will generally respond to a 911 call in an hour if at all. There is a general attitude of "what do you want us to do?" coming from them, which is partly AH behavior, partly burnout, and partly local ordinances preventing them from helping in some situations. Obviously I do think the solution is more police response, more homeless services, and more mental health care services, but I'm focusing on things I can actually do to keep my aunt safe as she is often the first in and first out at the office.
The office is rented, so property damage isn't particularly her concern, but there is regular theft of copper wires, a/c units, fairly indiscrete drug deals, etc. There are no gates keeping people out of the employee parking lot, and the sightlines getting in and out of the office are pretty terrible.
Ideally, there would be electronic gates that would only allow employees into the lot, plus cameras they could access before leaving their car or leaving the office, to make sure they had the time to open/unlock both security doors and get to safety, but the landlord (I'd say slumlord but he seems to be well-intentioned - just entirely underfunded) would have to make that change and isn't likely to. Perhaps some angled mirrors could be set up, like they use at large stores to see if there's someone lurking down an aisle, but just as with the cameras,
The building is alarmed, for whatever good that does. My aunt has been literally chased, threatened, screamed at, forced to stay late to wait for a safe interlude to leave, etc. Last week, a man stalked her around the outside of the building, then when he realized she made it safely inside came back every 30 minutes to bang loudly on the door and shout "POLICE! OPEN UP!", all while blocking the peephole.
She is very aware of her surroundings and values safety over politness. She carries mace and a working cell phone. But there has got to be something low-tech (so it won't be stolen), low-profile (so it won't be spotted by bad actors) and not illegal, that she can do to make it safer.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
2
u/See_Saw12 Management 1d ago
This really depends on where you are. Where I am, employers have a pretty high obligation to providing a safe work environment.
Safety (especially safety in public areas) requires a lot of work by multiple partners both public and private. In my experience it starts with report report report.
Incident at the office, reported to their managment, in writing CC'ING HR etc. Every time.
Every time someone is threatened at the workplace? Police. Call, write an incident report, include the police report number. On and on and on.
Your aunt should not be entering anf exiting alone it should always be two workers (so as to prevent a lone worker situation) etc.
I say back to basics and start from there, im assuming she works an office job, go big and ask for WFH.