Violence Awareness Training for Field Employees Fiscal Year 1999 Findings and Recommendations

Violence Awareness Training For Field Employees Fiscal Year 1999 Findings and Recommendations Jon Driessen, Ph.D., Project Leader Daniel P. Doyle, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Lisa Outka, Project Assistant USDA Forest Service Technology & Development Program Missoula, MT 9E92H68—Personal Safety Awareness For Field Employees June 2000 The Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has developed this information for the guidance of its employees, its contractors, and its cooperating Federal and State agencies, and is not responsible for the interpretation or use of this information by anyone except its own employees. The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this document is for the information and convenience of the reader, and does not constitute an endorsement by the Department of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. The USDA prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, and so forth) should phone USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. i Contents Executive Summary ___________________________ 1 Background and Project History _________________ 2 Beginnings of the Project_________________________________ 2 Sharpening the Focus of the Project ________________________ 2 Five Modules—Recommendations _________________________ 2 Work Completed During Fiscal Year 1999 __________ 3 Early Development Activities ______________________________ 3 Initial Data Gathering ____________________________________ 3 Developing a Typology __________________________________ 3 Interviews in the Northern Region __________________________ 3 Interviews in the Southwest Region ________________________ 3 First Video Footage _____________________________________ 3 Work Plan for Fiscal Year 2000 ___________________ 4 Interviews in the Southern Region__________________________ 4 More Video Footage ____________________________________ 4 Complete Module 1 _____________________________________ 4 Recommended Goals for Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002 _5 Goals for Fiscal Year 2001 _______________________________ 5 Goals for Fiscal Year 2002 _______________________________ 5 Tentative Outline of the Modules _________________ 6 Module 1—Personal Safety Awareness for All Employees _______ 6 Module 2—Personal Safety Responsibilities for Supervisors _____ 6 Module 3—Community and Home Personal Safety ____________ 7 Module 4—Reading Scenes and People_____________________ 7 Module 5—Handling Potentially Dangerous Encounters_________ 8 Other Possible Modules _________________________________ 8 Concerns From the Field—Three More Recommendations ____________________________ 9 Personal Safety Concerns About the Good HOST Program ______ 9 Personal Safety Concerns About Collecting Money ____________ 9 Problems Caused by the Separation of Law Enforcement From Line Officers ____________________________________ 9 About the Authors ____________________________ 11 Appendix—Project Timeline ____________________ 12 ii Executive Summary his progress report describes a nology and Development Center. The with supervisory duties. It is designed project to develop training mater- project team examined and evaluated to raise supervisors’ awareness of TTials that can help USDA Forest existing training programs and avail- potential problems and encourage Service employees avoid or better able data on violent victimizations and them to make violence safety a priority. handle violence and threats of violence. carried out extensive interviews with The third module will help Forest This report includes several recom- workers throughout the Forest Service. Service workers understand and cope mended policy changes that are Based on the development work to with violence or threats they may face intended to help prevent violence. date, the project team recommends in their community and home because producing a video training program of of their job. The fourth module will focus This project came about because of at least five modules. The first of these on how workers in field settings can concern throughout the Forest Service modules should be designed to raise read scenes and people to avoid or that employees are at significant risk employee awareness of potential prob- better handle potentially dangerous of violence, especially while working in lems and provide general preventive situations. The fifth module will consider remote settings. At the behest of the measures that can be employed by all what to do if a potentially dangerous Forest Service’s Washington Office Forest Service workers. The second encounter takes place in a remote Safety and Health unit, a project team module will be addressed to workers setting. was assembled at the Missoula Tech- 1 Background and Project History Beginnings of the Given the lack of available training are outside the control of the Forest materials and the overall dearth of infor- Service or its workers. The orientation Project mation on the nature and extent of of this program will be on giving Forest violence in remote work settings, the Service employees the tools to antici- In recent years Forest Service employ- project team determined to concentrate pate (insofar as possible) and cope with ees have been victimized by violence initial efforts on exposure to violence threats to personal safety that arise in and threats of violence. Forest Service in remote work settings. Subsequent a sometimes unpredictable world. employees at all levels in the organiza- development work has shown a sub- tion have expressed concern for their stantial overlap between the three personal safety or that of their coworkers. arenas. For example, disputes arising In response, the Washington Office in remote work settings sometimes spill Safety and Health unit decided in October over into the office setting. On-the-job 1998 to sponsor a project to learn more threats of violence sometimes spill over Five Training about the nature and extent of expo- into the community and home life of sure to violent victimization of Forest Forest Service employees. There is a Modules— Service workers so appropriate training need for training in office safety, but Recommendations materials could be developed, produced, other training materials are currently and disseminated. available. The need for training in office Based on work done to date, the project safety is not as immediate as the need team recommends that the violence The project was based at the Missoula for training in the other arenas. Some awareness and personal safety Technology and Development Center material that applies to office safety can program take the form of at least five (MTDC) with Jon Driessen, Ph.D., be integrated into training modules videotape modules with associated serving as Project Leader. In December focusing on general safety awareness, training materials. The first module (and of 1998 MTDC contracted with Daniel problems in remote work settings, and the module with the highest priority) Doyle, Ph.D., a criminologist from Mis- personal safety in the community and would be designed to raise employee soula, to serve as Principal Investigator. at home. awareness of potential problems and Later, Lisa Outka, a graduate student to provide general preventive mea- in criminology, was added as Project Much of the concern about violence sures that can be employed by Forest Assistant. arose because of a few dramatic, very Service workers in a variety of work serious incidents of violence against settings. The second module would be Forest Service workers. However, devel- addressed to workers with supervisory opment work to date has shown that duties. It would be designed to raise verbal threats, abuse, and harassment their awareness of potential problems are far more common than physical and to encourage them to make violence Sharpening the Focus attacks. Therefore, a major focus of the safety a priority. The third module would of the Project training program has to be on handling be oriented toward helping Forest such threats and reducing the Service workers understand and cope As originally envisioned, a compre- probability that they will escalate into with violence or threats they may face hensive personal safety program for physical violence. in their community and at home because Forest Service workers would have to of their jobs. The fourth module would address violence and threats of No training program can prevent all focus on how workers in field settings violence in three different arenas: violence. Some violence (including very can read scenes and people to avoid serious violence like assault or arson) or better handle potentially dangerous • Safety in remote work settings is very difficult, if not impossible, to situations. The fifth module would • Safety in the community and at home anticipate or avoid. Many of the root concern what to do if a potentially and causes of violence in our society and dangerous encounter takes place

Load more