What steps do you take to ensure that the community office is safe?

Given some recent high profile cases of violence in the community office, often relating to volatile situations like evictions, what plan do you all have in place?

I know that these are scary and serious times and don't want my reply to sound "fluffy" however;
1. Train the staff to stay cool and use calming words, not to argue or raise voices or threaten. 90% of the time we can soothe the 'savage beast' by being kind, empathetic and NICE. It never works to pour gasoline on a burning fire.
2. It just may be time to always have 2 people (at least) in the office, no more working alone. I know there will always be times when one is at lunch, or showing an apartment. However, scheduling just one person may not be wise...safety in numbers.
3. I am not a fan, but having Mace and alarms on key rings may have to be put in place.
4. Offer the office/coffee/restrooms to local police department. Having their cars in and out often may be a deterrent. Our church has an officer who uses our parking lot for filling out his reports. We love having him and his vehicle there and we deliver coffee to him!

I teach all office members that if they are ever feeling unsafe to pull a fire alarm pull station, most offices will have these and at least it gets everyone outside and sends emergency personnel at the same time.

Any site that handles evictions commonly should probably never leave the property on a skeleton crew and use at least 2 employees in the office. Creating a quick code word to text your maintenance crews to have them respond wherever you are just to be present isn’t a bad idea either, you may not even get along with them half the time but I can guarantee if it’s a safety situation they will show up.

Times are not any more scary than 50 years old. Back then people would sweep it under the rug or it just didn't get as much publicist as things go viral now on every little thing. Because the public now as access to the internet. I had a leasing agent attacked inside our leasing office as she sat behind her desk. The assailant starting hitting her on top of her head. Our leasing agent turned her chair & gave her a big swift kick knocking the assailant backwards. The assailant wasn't expecting her to react in that manner. However each occurrence that happens in which you feel your life is being threaten. The employee should immediately take action to protect themselves at any cost. Our multi-family industry doesn't not provide an safety class in prevention for their staff like they do on preventive maintenance. In public customer service where we are exposed to unlimited situations. We need to protect ourselves in any means possible. Because at the end of the day. Just like the police officer that are sworn to protect & service. We also want to go home to our families at the end of our shift.

We only have 4 staff members and three offices, so we spend a lot of time working on our own. All of our desks in all 3 offices have silent alarms, we also keep Mace in our desk drawers. When I am on site and feel a situation may turn volatile I notify law enforcement prior to my arrival, they love dropping by to say hello and also call me to make sure that all is well. Having a great relationship with law enforcement (we bring the entire department Girls Scout Cookies in the spring, fruit baskets in the summer, and homemade baked goods for Christmas) helps me feel safe and also keeps me in the loop when there are situations at my building.

In addition to safety training all of our communities are equipped with the Apartment Guardian safety device. Our associates carry them while walking the property, inspecting units & touring and they are available at any time in the Leasing Office. If activated it will automatically connect with first responders.