Companies sharpen focus on security after workplace shootings

SAN FRANCISCO -- Joe sat in his United Parcel Service truck at the company distribution center on Potrero Hill on Thursday waiting for a pickup call. He was listening to the radio about the shootings at YouTube that had erupted just two days before and still had the Bay Area rattled. He shrugged.

Nine months ago, a fellow UPS driver easily walked through the center's doors with a pair of pistols and a box of bullets, and after gunning down three workers and wounding two others, he shot himself to death. Since then, UPS has changed guard companies and tightened up its policies on metal detectors and bag checks, several workers said.

Joe, a middle-aged driver who used an alias because he said UPS forbids workers from speaking to the media, was skeptical.

``That's great,'' Joe said. ``Maybe,'' he said, it will prevent another slaughter -- or an invasion like the one at YouTube's San Bruno campus last week by a woman who sneaked into a courtyard and shot and wounded three people before killing herself.

``But I'd say 'maybe' is a big word there,'' he said. Joe pointed to the cavernous UPS building, which sits at 16th Street and San Bruno Avenue, and the huge door that allows streams of delivery rigs to roll in and out.

``Just look at that giant door -- we've got four of them, and they're designed big and open because our trucks are going in and out all the time. You can't make that totally airtight safe, no matter what.

''It's like that in a lot of places, certainly not just ours. That's just the way it is.``

The same caution is being expressed by consultants who are in increasing demand to create security systems for companies such as UPS, YouTube and others that have been traumatized by mass shootings, or are in fear of them.

Short of turning every building that contains people into a fortress, there is no way to shield everyone absolutely, security experts say.

''Nobody has a foolproof answer. You can do everything possible, but I always say that for every 6-foot fence there is an 8-foot ladder,`` said Patrick Murphy, whose LPT Security Consulting advises companies nationwide about how to prevent workplace shootings. ''What you want to do is minimize the risk.``

He said it was admirable if UPS had indeed tightened its security after the June 14, 2017, rampage by delivery driver Jimmy Chanh Lam. But considering the company has wide truck delivery doors like many other places, keeping employees aware of danger and troubling signs among co-workers is every bit as important as hiring new guards and improving metal detector practices, he said.

''Everyone has to have a name tag, get to know each other and keep their eyes open,`` Murphy said. ''The scary thing is you have no idea how long someone is going to simmer before they come in to shoot people, so the important thing is to see the signs and catch it early.``

From 2013 to 2016, workplace killings in the United States went up 23 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And granted, that does not mean every shop and warehouse is being attacked -- the number only reflects a rise from 404 workplace homicides in 2013 to 500 in 2016, out of a national workforce of 160 million.

Still, the phenomenon of mass workplace killings is a relatively new trend that began attracting wide notice in the mid-1980s and early 1990s when mail workers were ''going postal`` in high-profile killings at post offices. Today, with the widest media and social-media reach in history, every new workplace shooting jangles the nation's population from coast to coast -- and churns up new calls for better security each time, experts note.

YouTube is now making one of those calls. The company is not giving specifics, but it issued a statement a day after Tuesday's shootings promising action. It said YouTube will be ''revisiting this incident in detail and and will increasing the security we have at all of our offices worldwide to make them more secure not only in the near term, but long-term.``

At UPS, some co-workers said they saw troubling signs in the June shooter -- but evidently not enough was done for prevention. Veteran driver Shaun Vu told The Chronicle that Lam had a drinking problem -- he'd gotten two DUIs -- as well as trouble with the mother of his child. He'd also filed a grievance through his union alleging he was working too hard, and Vu had suggested he see a psychiatrist.

''I talked to him two or three weeks prior to`` the shooting, Vu said. ''I asked how he was, and he said, 'Not too good.' ... You could figure he was in a bad place.``

Workplace security consultant Patrick Prince, who began his career helping a post office recover from a mass shooting in 1993, said Lam's warning signs were typical. It's difficult to tell when to act on them without being too intrusive -- but they're always worth at least sensitively addressing, he said.

A U.S. Secret Service report released last month on mass-casualty attacks found that three-quarters of shooters displayed troubling behavior that caused concern in others, and that two-thirds of shooters showed signs of mental illness such as delusions or paranoia.

''No one just snaps,`` Prince said. ''It's always the result of a particular pathway. Right now, from what I've been reading about the YouTube shooter, her family knew there was some odd behavior going on. It fits.``

Relatives of YouTube shooter Nasim Najafi Aghdam told The Chronicle at the family home in Riverside County on Wednesday that they had been worried about her behavior, and they said they warned authorities to keep an eye on her. But police in Mountain View who found Aghdam sleeping in her car Tuesday, hours before the shooting, said the family mentioned she was frustrated and angry over YouTube limiting her videos on exercise and animal rights, but did not warn them of potential violence.

''We need to gather more information on all of that to know for sure what happened, but the overall fact is this: We're getting much better as a society in knowing when something is wrong, but we're not so good at knowing what to do with the information,`` Prince said. ''Anytime someone you know, or you work with, is concerning you, let someone know who can do something about it -- managers, counselors.

``It's very valuable to do that,'' he said. ``Yes, we need locked doors, active shooter training and metal detectors, but you can't have one without the other.''

UPS and Allied Universal Security Services have been sued in San Francisco Superior Court by victims and families of those slain in the June shooting who contend Lam was able to walk in with his murderous gear because of lax security.

``Had the security guard done his job that day and checked Lam's bag, three people wouldn't have lost their lives, others would not have been shot and so many would not have had to flee,'' said Kevin Morrison, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.

``A lot of companies don't go to the expense of hiring security and installing metal detectors -- but if you do have them, like at the UPS facility, use them properly.''

UPS spokesman Matthew O'Connor said he could not comment on the lawsuit, or what measures were taken to harden security. An Allied spokeswoman also said she could not comment on litigation, and noted that the company no longer services the Potrero Hill UPS facility.

Several of the plant's 350 workers, however, said the company did tighten up its measures. Like Joe, they couldn't be quoted by name, but they said they feel safer now.

``It was terrible that day, but they've done good since then,'' one worker said as he passed through a metal detector for his shift. ``These detectors are good, but security is really about communication, watching out for each other. That's what we're trying to do.

''This is not a violent place. Sometimes bad stuff happens, yeah. But that's not who we are.``