Evacuation Plans and Non-Employees - WST

Undoubtedly, your institution has an evacuation plan that covers many scenarios, including but not limited to weather, active shooter, civil disturbance, and others. What do you do with non-employees who happen to be in your facility when you need to lock the doors due to an emergency? We always consider our employees, but what about these other people? The safety of employees and customers override all other security concerns at the time the incident is occurring but does not permit you to ignore your security program.

Consider amending your evacuation plans to include information about how to manage non-employees who may end up in a non-public space in the bank. You should document each visitor as appropriate, per your visitor policy and ensure the visitors are escorted wherever they may go during the time of the emergency lock-down.

Don’t rely or count on law enforcement or first responders to document this information for you. Often with ongoing investigations, this information may not be available for extended periods of time.

Authored by: Bill Wallen, Security+