Workplace Violence (Trespass)

When I used to do bar and door security, I used to have to remind myself that this was my workplace, and I shouldn’t expect to be assaulted in it. This may seem strange to some people i.e. you are performing a job that potentially involves confronting aggressive and violent individuals, however I used to adopt this mindset, because it allowed me to properly identify what was acceptable and unacceptable behavior. There is a great danger in accepting violence in any area of your life as an inevitability. I have trained many people in the health and psych industry, who are resigned to the fact that patients will assault them, and that this is simply part of the job – I would argue quite strongly that it is not. Are you at a higher risk of assault working in these industries? Absolutely, just as you are when you have to deal with drunks, however such aggression and violence, shouldn’t be accepted, as something that is part of the job. One of the dangers that comes from this mindset, is that certain individuals start to believe that they can act and behave with impunity; that they somehow are entitled to act in socially unacceptable ways because they believe the people they are dealing with can’t or won’t go to the police, press charges or allow them to suffer the consequences of their actions/behaviors. Aggression and violence in the workplace, is never acceptable and should never be tolerated.   

This week I conducted a training session/seminar on workplace violence, for a social service provider – 70-74% of violent workplace incidents occur in the healthcare and social service sector. I have found in my time delivering such training that many people are confused about their rights to defend themselves, as well as when to – having a right doesn’t always mean it’s the most effective option to choose. I have also found a lot of confusion around “trespass”, and what to do when someone is acting in a threatening manner, in a workplace, and needs to be removed (something I often had to do when working bar/door security). This confusion doesn’t just exist in the workplace, many individuals in everyday settings don’t understand when they have the right/should defend themselves and how to handle someone who is on their property and refuses to leave e.g. a drunk house guest, who has over stayed their welcome, and has been asked to leave etc.

Trespass occurs when an individual has been asked to leave either a workplace or a house, and refuses to do so, either by explicitly stating that they’re not going to leave, or by implicitly refusing the request by remaining on the property. The simplest solution is to call the police, however you may find that the police are reluctant to get involved and/or “enforce” your request for the person to leave, if you are in a house or similar dwelling. The reason for this is that they may be unsure if the person you are trying to have removed is actually a legal occupant of the property, and to forcibly remove them may violate that individual’s rights etc. In a workplace setting things are much clearer, as a customer or client, obviously doesn’t reside on the property. In some states physical force is allowed to remove somebody from a property (in others it is only permissible if the person is committing an assault) if you believe that they are committing a criminal trespass – an important fact to bear in mind, if things go legal, is that you must prove that the person committing the trespass was not justified to be on the property (they do not have to prove that they were justified to be there, you have to prove they weren’t). In most workplace settings, trespass is normally accompanied by an assault – especially if a person refuses to leave after a request has been made. If you ask someone to leave your property and they become aggressive with you, or continue to behave aggressively, it is reasonable to have a fear for your safety – if you fear for your safety and the person you are dealing with is at a distance where they could engage with you physically, then they are guilty of assault as well as trespass e.g. if you have a customer who becomes aggressive in your place of work, such as a shop, and you ask them to leave, and they refuse, continuing to act aggressively towards you, which makes you fear for your safety, and they could grab, push, hit you – are at a distance where they could cause you physical harm – you are being assaulted.

The next thing to understand is the level of force you are allowed to use. This is both a moral and legal question. This is a subject that the law is relatively quiet on – what most states and countries agree on, is that deadly force is not permitted when trying to deal with a trespasser. When I worked door security, mine and my colleagues goal, was to get individuals who were engaged in anti-social activities out of the building; it wasn’t to “punish” them or teach them a lesson, it was simply to remove the problem outside of the premises. To this end, physical force, usually started with a guiding hand, to direct a person out who had refused a verbal request; if resistance to this was met, this would perhaps become more forceful and the individual would possibly be put in a control hold, if they’d started to throw punches or it was believed that they would. What is important to note, is that all of this would be preceded by verbal requests for the person to leave – only when it was obvious that they wouldn’t, would physical enforcement be applied.

I will caveat everything I have written by stating that I am not an attorney, but someone who works in the security industry and has tried to make myself aware of what society both legally and morally judges to be acceptable. Different states and different countries will have slightly different definitions of what constitutes criminal trespass, and how such incidents should be handled. Where things become much clearer is when an assault occurs with trespass – if somebody refuses to leave your property and engages in threatening behavior at a proximity where they could physically harm you – as here the law is clear on your rights to defend yourself.