Engineering Controls and Workplace Adaptation
- Assess any plans for new construction or physical changes to the facility or workplace to eliminate or reduce security hazards.
- Install and regularly maintain alarm systems and other security devices, response buttons, hand-held alarms or noise devices, cellular phones, and private channel radios where risk is apparent or may be anticipated, and arrange for a reliable response system when an alarm is triggered.
- Provide metal detectors installed or hand-held, where appropriate to identify guns, knives, or other weapons, according to the recommendations of security consultants.
- Use a closed-circuit video recording for high-risk areas on a 2-hour basis. Public safety is a greater concern than privacy in these situations.
- Place curved mirrors at hallway intersections or concealed areas.
- Enclose work stations, and install deep service counters or bullet-resistant shatter-proof glass in reception areas, triage, admitting, or client service rooms, where appropriate.
- Provide employee "safe rooms" for use during emergencies.
- Medical facilities. Establish "time-out" or seclusion areas with high ceilings without grids for patients acting out and establish separate rooms for criminal patients.
- Medical facilities. Provide client or patient waiting rooms designed to maximize comfort and minimize stress. Ensure that counseling or patient care rooms have two exits.
- Limit access to employee counseling rooms and treatment rooms controlled by using locked doors.
- Arrange furniture to prevent entrapment of employees.
- In interview rooms or crisis treatment areas, furniture should be minimal, lightweight, without sharp corners or edges, and/or affixed to the floor.
- Limit the number of pictures, vases, ashtrays, or other items that can be used as weapons.
- Provide lockable and secure bathrooms for staff members separate from public areas.
- Lock all unused doors to limit access, in accordance with local fire codes.
- Install bright, effective lighting indoors and outdoors.
- Replace burned-out lights, broken windows, and locks.
- Keep automobiles, if used in the field, well-maintained. Always lock automobiles.