A Rush to Judgement?

The workplace violence tragedy that shattered Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Connecticut, this week has attracted much attention...

Those of in the security trade have worked to prevent all forms of workplace violence, including homicide, for ages. The great majority of homicides at work - 75% or so - are routinely committed during armed robberies. In the 1980s a different sort of workplace homicide captured the public imagination - workplace mass murder. In 1986 postal worker Patrick Sherrill single-handedly inspired the term "going postal" when he murdered 14 co-workers. Then in 1988 Richard Farley shocked the world, especially those of us living and working in the "Silicon Valley," when he went on his infamous rampage at ESL. Since then there have been mass killings at other businesses, on commuter trains, in schools, and even on military bases. While much less common these incidents grab the 24 hour news cycle by the throat every time they occur.

This week Caroline Hamilton wrote about killings perpetrated by Omar Thornton at Hartford Distributors on her Riskwatch blog.

She posted my response a day later.

Today Security Management Daily linked to an article written 5 August 2010 by James Allen Fox on his Crime and Punishment blog at the Boston Globe titled "Workplace homicide: What is the risk?" Good reading. Professor Fox has done the math on the sort of statistics I hastily assembled for my reply to Ms. Hamilton. I look forward to following the rest of his series on this topic.

Workplace violence and its prevention and mitigation is a complex set of issues that will call for all of us to do our best work.