Workplace Violence is on the Rise: Protect Your Organization

Workplace violence is becoming more prevalent in American society. While it is commonly referred to as an active shooter incident, workplace violence ranges from verbal abuse to physical assault.

According to the FBI’s 2023 report on active shooter incidents, there were 229 active shooter incidents between 2019-2023, up 89% from 2014-2018. In that five-year period, there were 1,222 casualties, 773 wounded and 449 people killed. More than half of those incidents occurred in public places such as businesses, malls and schools. While there isn’t insurance that can predict or prevent these events, there is Active Assailant insurance designed to help your business respond, recover and rebuild from these events, whether that be from an active shooter situation or other types of mass violence.

Active Assailant

Active assailant refers to a physical or malicious attack by a person who is actively engaged in attempting to kill or cause serious harm to at least one person. Many people refer to this as the use of a firearm, but it also includes handheld weapons and hostage events.

Why Active Assailant coverage

• It provides protection for your employees and customers in handling the aftermath of an active assailant event.
• Your business will have financial protection after an active assailant event. to help your business return to normal as quickly as possible.
• Coverage can help pay for:
  • Medical expenses
  • Business interruption
  • Legal fees and liability
  • Counseling

Without an insurance policy to help address the financial impact of an active assailant event, businesses might find themselves financially crippled, leading to layoffs, closures or even bankruptcy.

Gaps in commercial insurance policies

There are many gaps in coverage within traditional commercial insurance policies that business leaders should be aware of to protect their organization and employees. For example:

• Commercial Liability coverage requires a claim to be made against the business and does not provide immediate support following an event or cover preventive costs.
• Workers’ Compensation only covers injury from an event if it is not personal and is only related to work. Domestic violence would not be covered.
• A terrorism policy requires the motive to be ideological, political or religious.
• Real Property and Business Interruption requires a named peril to respond to any one loss.

Workplace Violence coverage

Another available coverage that you might already purchase as part of an Employment Practices Liability policy is Workplace Violence coverage. This coverage would respond in the event of use of a deadly weapon that results in injury or death, stalking threats or threats of violence. This coverage is usually sublimited to $100,000-$250,000 and offers security consultants, public relations, counseling seminars for employees and forensic analysts. Sometimes it includes a very limited window of business interruption.

Risk Management

Active Assailant insurance policies provide full crisis management through an expert crisis consultant and incident response team. Incident response advice is generally available 24 hours a day, with experienced professionals on hand to answer urgently and provide advice to businesses.

Oswald’s Loss Control team can be engaged as a compliment to an Active Assailant policy or as a more tailored approach to identify, prepare and respond to threats. These offerings include:

• Emergency preparedness assessments
• Developing training sessions
• Facility risk assessments
• A current review of current practices and procedures around security and active assailant response.

Protect Your Organization

Active assailant attacks leave a lasting impact, making it incredibly difficult for businesses to deal with its effects. Active Assailant insurance not only prepares you for the financial impact of a tragedy, but also shows that you care about the safety of your employees and customers. Purchasing an Active Assailant policy also serves as a risk management resource and provides support before, during and after an event.

Oswald is here to help provide a tailored approach to evaluating risk, implementing training, creating business continuity and disaster response planning, and placing insurance coverage to respond to unfortunate events.

For more information, please visit our Active Assailant page or contact us below.