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    McDonald's lawsuit proves strong facility security a necessity rather than an option

    Sept. 3, 2014
    Restaurant recently found liable for deaths of two Texas college students, parents awarded $27M
    (Photo courtesy bigstockphoto.com/DeanPictures)
    Two former Texas Supreme Court chief justices hired by opposing sides in a lawsuit that resulted in a $27M verdict against McDonald's will be in court this week for arguments surrounding the judge's decision to uphold or overturn the jury's verdict.
    Two former Texas Supreme Court chief justices hired by opposing sides in a lawsuit that resulted in a $27M verdict against McDonald's will be in court this week for arguments surrounding the judge's decision to uphold or overturn the jury's verdict.

    Many organizations initially ramped up their security measures after 9/11 with fears running rampant about the potential for terror attacks on malls, sporting events and schools. That tightening of security slowly evaporated over the years as anticipated attacks failed to materialize.

    However, new threats have replaced the ever-present fear of a terrorist attack on an individual facility. For example, a Texas jury recently awarded the parents of two Blinn College students $27 million in a lawsuit they filed against McDonald’s, arguing the restaurant's lack of security measures resulted in the deaths of their children. McDonald’s was found liable for failing to provide adequate security not for the restaurant itself, but rather for the parking lot.

    Two teenagers lost their lives that night in February of 2012. Denton James Ward, 18, was attacked and killed by a mob in the McDonald’s franchise parking lot in College Station.  The other teen, 19-year-old Lauren Bailey Crisp, was killed in a car crash trying to take Ward to a hospital.

    The prosecution called police officers who testified that police had been called more than 20 times that year to break up fights at that location.  Lawyers for the victims’ families argued that McDonald’s failed to employ a security guard or install surveillance equipment to protect patrons in the parking lot.

    “The night these two kids died, this was a dangerous location, and McDonald’s knew it,” Chris Hamilton, an attorney for the Crisp and Ward families, said in a statement. “Yet they did nothing to prevent their senseless deaths.”

    This lawsuit is a wake-up call for other public facilities that have had security issues, but still have not increased security for their customers.  Potential controls for such public facilities could include:

    • Visible security officer presence
    • Monitored security cameras
    • Panic/duress alarms in at-risk locations
    • Roving security patrols
    • Defined security policy on when to call police
    • Annual security-risk assessments
    • Warning signs

    The local threat environment is also a cause for concern for facilities that are located in places with a high rate for violent crimes or property crimes.  In the McDonald’s case, the crime rate for College Station, Texas, was higher than U.S. national average, and slightly higher than the average crime rate for the state.

    In addition to potential lawsuits brought by victim’s families related to "lax security," OSHA, which is getting more pro-active in ensuring worker safety, could also sanction organizations that have continual high rates of violence toward their workers, possibly claiming that the employer violated the “General Duty Clause” which protects workers against having to work in an unsafe environment.

    Organizations are getting close to having a minimum acceptable standard for security programs, which could include the aforementioned controls, as well as annual risk assessments to provide realistic security estimates for facilities across the U.S.

    About the Author

    Caroline Hamilton | President, Risk and Security LLC

    Caroline Ramsey Hamilton is a leading threat and risk assessment expert in both physical and IT security. Ramsey-Hamilton was a charter member of the NIST Risk Management Model Builders Workshop, wrote a Defensive Information Warfare Risk Management Model for the Department of Defense, and was on a group to analyze security networks for the National Security Agency. She has developed many specialized risk and threat assessment programs for hospitals, healthcare organizations and large public and private organizations including the DoD, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and companies like Northrop Grumman, AT&T, Parrish Medical, and Magellan Health Services, Inc.

    Ramsey-Hamilton serves on the board of the South Florida Chapter of the International Association of Healthcare Safety and Security. In addition, she is also a member of the ASIS Physical Security Council and a 10-year member of the ASIS Information Technology Security Council.

    Ramsey-Hamilton recently received the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board Lifetime Achievement Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the Maritime Security Council for her work with international seaport risk and threat assessment models after 9/11. She has also worked internationally with the Government of Hong Kong, the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, and the Defense Forces in Canberra, Australia.