If your worksite has any form of security, it can provide a valuable first line of defense for any employee who is being pursued or stalked by an abuser. Abusers and stalkers are known to be extremely resourceful in gaining access to buildings and sites with even the best of security systems, often by simply talking their way in or getting someone on the inside to help. In reviewing your site access and entry control systems and procedures, you should consider the following issues:

• How well trained are your officers (including contract security officers) and your employees with respect to workplace violence?
• Could a stalker talk his way past a security officer by claiming, for example, that he was there to have lunch with his wife?
• Do employees inside the building open the door to strangers who have "forgotten their IDs"?
• Do you have round-the-clock security, or could someone gain access to the building after hours?

The physical layout of the worksite can make a victim more vulnerable to violence. Victims who are being actively harassed, stalked, or threatened should not be located in work venues that are accessible to the general public or where their view of people coming and going is obstructed. Retail and public service environments may present challenges to this general rule, forcing the Domestic Violence Response Team to come up with alternative plans - with the assistance of law enforcement if necessary. The following guidelines should be reviewed for each case of possible on-site intrusion:

• The victim should never sit with her back to a door, lobby, or street-level window
• There should be barriers (desks, dividers, walls, furniture) between the victim and entrances that a perpetrator might use to enter the workplace

If an employer has workplaces in multiple locations, it is sometimes helpful and potentially lifesaving to offer to relocate a threatened employee to alternate worksites unknown to the perpetrator. This relocation should be handled in the strictest confidentiality.

This Web site is provided as an informational resource only and is not intended to be legal or professional advice. If you have questions about the application of issues raised to your particular situation, seek the advice of a competent attorney or other professional.