2. Being alert
Having a pre-planned response for how you will deal with specific domestic extremist incidents will help to make you feel safer and more confident at work and at home.
Each response must be proportionate to the risk of harm you are facing.
Your planned responses for dealing with domestic extremism, including animal rights extremism, will need to cover:
- domestic extremist incidents that do not put you or others at direct risk of immediate harm
- violent or illegal domestic extremist activity that directly threatens to harm you or others.
Your plan of actions should include:
What you need to do to avoid any immediate danger:
- Do you need to get away?
- Do you need to alert others – your colleagues, security guards, people who are with or near you?
- Do you need to secure your location – lock doors, close windows?
- Where do you need to go a place of safety? How will you get there?
Who you need to inform:
- Who do you need to inform when you are at work?
- When you are not in the workplace, which domestic extremist incidents should you report by contacting your local police station?
- How will you let family and friends know you are all right?
Go to 'Domestic extremist campaigns' for more information.
Familiarise yourself with the security measures in your workplace:
Make sure that you know what to do and who you should contact in the event of a domestic extremist incident at work.
Don't be predictable in what you do:
- Vary your journey to and from work. Keep changing your routes and times of departure.
- Do not regularly use the same public place – bar, restaurant, café, pub.
- Inform someone at work or at home about your travel arrangements. Tell them:
where you are going
who you are meeting
how you will travel
when you expect to return.
Let them know if you are going to return late. Give instructions on what to do and how to contact you if you do not return when expected.
Do not give out any unnecessary information about yourself or the organisation you work for:
- Don't volunteer unnecessary personal details, particularly when you are socialising and relaxing, about:
yourself
your family
the organisation you work for including, customers, suppliers, contractors, financial services providers and so on.
Be alert to suspicious or unusual activity:
- unusual phonecalls
- packages you are not expecting to receive
- someone acting suspiciously.
Trust your instincts; they are there to protect you.
Keep a record of any domestic extremist incident that takes place to give to the police:
- Record the time and date.
- Give a summary of what happened.
- Note any significant details. For example, the colour, make and registration number of a car.
- Film or photograph the incident, if possible – on a mobile phone, digital camera, digital cam-corder, CCTV (closed-circuit television).
- Keep correspondence, packages and parcels – don't throw away anything or delete email. Handle letters, envelopes, packaging as little as possible.
You may also need to report any domestic extremist incident that occurs when you are not at work to the appropriate person in your organisation. Keep the contact details for that person with you at all times.
If your organisation has an out-of-hours reporting system, make sure you also have those contact details.
Reviewing your personal security plan
Practice any pre-planned responses to domestic extremist incidents that are in your personal security plan. This will help you to discover any weaknesses in it and make appropriate changes.
You should review your personal security plan at regular intervals and update it if necessary, particularly if a domestic extremist incident has taken place.
A well-researched personal security plan will increase your confidence in dealing with domestic extremist risk in and outside of the workplace. It will:
- give you the ability to respond effectively to domestic extremism
- help you to remain calm, take control and know exactly what you need to do help to protect yourself.
If a domestic extremist incident takes place, it is likely that you will feel distressed and upset. Try to ensure that you get the appropriate help to deal how you are feeling.
- Victim Support is a charity that provides free, confidential support to help people cope with the effects of crime and deal with their experiences.
- Victims of Animal Rights Extremism (VARE) is a support group for individuals and organisations affected by animal rights extremism (ARE), staffed by people who themselves have been victims of ARE.
