A fight starts in the bathroom. All parties were moved out of the club to the parking lot. No guests are detained and no police are called. Once in the parking lot, the fight spins out of control again. Then, one of the men retrieves a machete from his car and starts swinging at some of the other men he was fighting with…
First off, if patrons are allowed to drink to excess or just run wild with no worry of consequence, any bar or club can be a very dangerous place. Now, add in a few security guards who are told just to break up fights and get problems outside and this is dangerous place can be deadly. Just pushing problems from inside to out is exactly like pouring gas on a fire.
Second point, fights will on occasion break out. Even with the correct number of trained and qualified in house security guards there might be a fight once in awhile. However, when you have a guard or guards in place who are proactive, who are trained to recognize problems before they occur, who are not ego maniacs and who don’t lose control when some drunk calls them a name, fights are far less frequent and other problems are handled before they turn to someone grabbing their machete!
Next, weapons are increasingly being used in and around bars and clubs where, again, guests are allowed to drink to excess or run wild with no worry of consequence. Every single employee should, at minimum be aware that guests of all ages seem to be increasingly violent should they get their feelings hurt or get involved in a “hands only” altercation. They may not have a gun on them but they don’t think twice about running to their car to retrieve their gat to pop a cap in some fool.
Finally, the police are a resource that more and more must be considered as a tool to use to help keep your venue safe. No, you don’t need to call them everytime you have an argument, HOWEVER, based on the history of the venue and the crowd, the current club or bar demographic and the level of the exact problem, the police must be used as a tool to help keep your other, non violent guests safe.
Yes, the police keep records of all calls for service to your bar or club. And, these calls for services don’t just come from 911 calls. They also are on the record when they just drive through your parking lot or just walk up to the door to say hello. True, every operator must be aware that during any review of your liquor license, your entertainment permit or a conditional use permit, the police will be asked to provide all the documents and numbers related to the calls for police service at your exact address or the exact name or the area near your location.
The larger issue is that operators don’t call police when they really need to and within 5 minutes, a machete is pulled and three people are nearly killed. I know I don’t have all the facts on this Louisiana case from just a day ago, but most of these cases are getting to be exactly the same.
Please understand I keep track of bar and club violence and am absolutely seeing an increase in bar and club violence. Help yourself and your guests.
- Have the right number of guards; don’t skimp here.
- Have these guards properly trained; by using our in person training or by using our online training. Even by using some other job specific training – just get the correct training.
- Have your staff totally understand what proactive is and teach them to work that way. Proactive is not letting someone in your bar who you know has caused problems before; it’s not worth the $40 dollars of Pabst their going to drink.
- Have a firm policy about arguments, altercations, fights, injury’s and when to call the authorities.
If you’d like to read the actual news article that prompted this post, read it here.
Be Safe Everyone
nice article