Jay Ricker endured every operator’s nightmare: a store associate gunned down while on the job.

Understandably shaken by the experience, Ricker, president of Anderson, Ind.-based Ricker Oil Co., today preaches safety: Assure store visibility both from the street looking in and from inside looking out, employee procedures that reduce risk during a robbery attempt and “disaster” preparation in the event of a worst-case scenario.

“You’re so overwhelmed at the time that it happens, especially if there’s a death. You’re not thinking as well, ”Ricker says of the killing of a female employee two years ago. “Preplanning is best. Hopefully, you don’t have to use [that emergency plan], but you want to just make one phone call.”

Still, all the planning in the world may not totally eliminate risk. When an incident does occur, he says, “As an owner, you don’t delegate. You need to be there.”

Ricker went to the employee’s wake as well as the funeral, set up a victim’s fund and kept out-of-town relatives informed. He and his management team consulted psychologists about when the store should reopen, which ended up being the next day. They made counselors available and even transfers if employees wanted them.

Ricker’s experience and those of other retailers who have solid procedures in place stand as a testament to how violence at the workplace can happen to anyone. Former retailer Bob Richard had a tragic experience last year when the ex-husband of an employee killed her at the store.

“He was talking casually to one of our security people, then pulled out a gun,” says Richard, who sold his business to Armada Oil, Dearborn, Mich., last year. “We never had a serious robbery. We never allowed just one person to work the store [late at night], always two. We had cameras, height strips on the doors, signs up [about having minimal cash amounts in the register].…In questionable neighborhoods we had off-duty, plainclothes policemen.”

While crime at convenience stores is a topic of much debate—with retailers bucking the stereotype of c-stores being a dangerous place to work—experts say the industry must be vigilant because their locations are a natural target.

“When dealing with a business that’s open late at night [and] everyone else around you is closed, you’re at higher risk simply because you’re still doing business,” says John Moore, a former policeman and author of several books on security.

Moore, who spoke at a CSP Network Cyber Conference last fall, says developing and communicating a standard set of procedures is paramount for retailers. “For instance, sometimes employees don’t know that if they reach below the front counter [for cash], the robber may think they’re pushing an alarm or going for a weapon,” says Moore, president of Armed Robbery Training Associates LLC, Spokane, Wash. “[Employees] don’t even know those things are a threat to robbers. You have to have policies and procedures. Once you do, you’re ahead of the problem.”

Many retailers, consumed with day to-day activities, often fall short of developing such procedures, says Jon Groussman, president and COO of Exton, Pa.-based CAP Index, a crime focused research firm that offers site assessments. A significant number of retailers, he says, “are focused on the bottom line and profitability, but they need to be responsible in order to mitigate risk [at their stores].”

A Fact of Life
Experts believe many retailers can improve safety further with better company policies, employee training and risk assessment at their locations. “The first thing I’d tell [retailers] is, look—you know that in the business you’re in, there’s an inherent risk for robbery, ”Groussman says. “Be proactive in continually evaluating that risk.”

Crime at c-stores and gasoline stations is up, although national statistics can be confusing, he says. The FBI, for instance, develops its crime-related numbers for gasoline separately from its numbers for c-stores. Reporting the latest figures from 2004 to 2005, Groussman says that crime at service stations has increased 9%. For c-stores, the figure dropped by half a percent. Total robberies in 2005, Groussman says, were 8,500 at gas stations and 17,000 at c-stores.

And yet, despite these numbers, Groussman believes the industry as a whole has improved its track record. “The larger petroleum and c-store operators invested in better technology like[cameras] and better safes for cash drops, better training and newer facilities that allow for better visibility and lighting,” he says. “They’ve gotten much better.”

Importance of Policies
For retailers looking to further improve safety at their stores, developing written policies and procedures is an important step. Groussman of CAP Index says he is surprised that even a few major oil companies have a difficult time actually defining internal policies for liability and lawsuit purposes.

Security consultant Moore says written policies are a must. “Take, for instance, ‘Do not resist the hold-up,’” he says. “That’s a good example of a broad policy. It’s a policy statement. The other part is to have procedures available. How do [employees] accomplish this policy?”

Moore also suggests developing methods of training that supervisors can measure, so that they know for certain that employees have familiarized themselves with robbery-related procedures. Role playing is a strong method; another avenue is technology. Also, teaching technologies are available that allow a manager to supervise the progress of an employee as he or she moves through a training program.

When developing procedures, retailers should also dispel a few commonly held myths, Moore says. The top three widely accepted robbery misconceptions are: Don’t look at a robber; don’t speak with a robber; and don’t set off the alarm.

Unless specifically told not to by the robber, the employee should both look at and talk to the robber to decrease the likelihood of injury. Doing so forms a relationship, which in hostage situations typically results in less or no physical harm. Also, keeping the robber informed about what the employee is doing keeps the robber calm. Through his own research involving 3,400 cases in the Spokane, Wash., area, Moore has concluded that sudden movements or physical or verbal resistance leads to injury 60% of the time, while less than 2% of robbery-related injuries involve unprovoked attacks.

Locking into Technology
Technology has also improved to increase safety at stores. Manufacturers of cameras, digital video recorder (DVR) systems and safes have developed increasingly innovative ways to reduce the amount of cash in the drawer and better capture images of perpetrators.

Safes today come with time delays, a feature that helps in reducing both the likelihood of injury to employees and monetary losses, says Ed McGunn, president of Corporate Safe Specialists, Posen, Ill. Robbers do not want to stick around for long periods of time, and if an employee communicates that he or she has to wait for the safe to open, the robber will more than likely leave.

Other technological modifications allow cashiers to load bills directly in to the safe. Many transactions involve $20bills, McGunn says, with customers coming in and saying, “Give me a candy bar and put the rest on the pump.” These bills can go directly into the safe, he says.

The whole idea is to block accessibility to cash. “Make sure [employees] keep the cash-register till at $75,” he says. “Any more is worth the risk to a robber; anything below is not.”

New features do have an effect on price, however. Manufacturers say safes featuring simple time delays can cost $1,500, but add on bill validation and it bumps prices up to $3,500. Additional functionality could put prices in the range of $10,000 to $12,000.

But those additional costs may afford added security, McGunn says. For instance, if a retailer retained an armored-car service and purchased the technology to automatically communicate from the safe to the bank, then the armored-car service could credit deposits to the in-store safe directly to a retailer’s account, there by avoiding the risky step of having an employee carrying deposits to the bank.

“Safes used to be an expense item that added no value,” says Steve Aronson, vice president of marketing, FireKing Security Group, New Albany, Ind. “Safes today have ROI. In addition to providing security, they improve efficiencies and reduce internal as well as external theft. Prices have actually gone up, but [safes are] more of a tool to help manage stores.”

The Aftermath
Still, no one can really prepare for the emotional toll of violent crime. Richard says that his emotions hit after the police and investigators departed and he had to deal with the crime scene. “All the people left and there’s still blood all over,” he says. “You’re thinking, ‘What do I do now?’ when the unthinkable happens.”

At the time, he immediately contacted NACS in Alexandria, Va., and eventually found Ricker, who had experienced a similar situation a year earlier. “You almost feel you need a support group,” Richard says. Ricker also says that handling the cleaning needed after a violent crime is something he did not think of, but he understands the importance of it now.

Richard says that he is grateful for having developed a strong relationship with the local media. The situation could have easily turned into one of finger pointing and blaming the business for not doing everything possible. Because he had worked with the local press on gasoline-related stories, reporters listened to his side of the story and informed the community about the safety measures he had in place.

Ultimately, what did help Richard and Ricker was preparation—on all fronts. “Like for any kind of disaster,” Ricker says, “you need to plan”.