Doing Double Duty and Loving It
Aultman Hospital Director of Security and Parking Services David Dougherty’s successful bicycle safety program and parking deck upgrades, as well as his work as a city councilman are just some of the reasons why he earned the 2009 Campus Safety Director of the Year, Healthcare Award.
In response to these concerns, he proposed turning the parking deck into a business structure unit. That way, all of the revenue it generated would be reinvested into the parking deck for maintenance and security enhancements.
“Before, the deck generated revenue, but it went into the big pot and got lost,” says the director. “My goal was, whatever we make there, we put it back in there because some of that money was needed for infrastructure repairs.”
Once hospital executives approved the plan, new perimeter fences, 25 new digital cameras and upgraded lighting were installed. Painting the walls white also improved visibility.
Cameras Catch Shooter in the Act
The installation of digital cameras on the roof of the deck paid off big time when a triple homicide occurred less than a block from campus. Just before the shooting, there was a fight at a bar across the street from the hospital, and Aultman security staff notified the Canton Police Department. Although Canton Police broke up the fight and dispersed the crowd, something didn’t feel quite right to one of Aultman’s full-time officers who is also a police officer. On a whim, he decided to use one of the parking deck’s new pan/tilt/zoom units to keep an eye on the bar.
“As he was turning the camera, he actually caught the shooting on tape,” says Andrew Marburger, a security coordinator with Aultman and the officer who nominated Dougherty. “We had the footage and were able to have it in the police’s hands a half hour after the incident.”
Although the cameras worked quite well in leading to the arrest of the suspect, the emotional toll on the security personnel and other hospital staff who immediately responded to the shootings couldn’t be fixed with technology. Instead, Dougherty had to use his management skills to lead his campus employees through their jitters.
“David was able to utilize his experience and expertise to assuage staff members’ fears and prevent any sort of panic from materializing,” says Marburger.
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Training Encourages Skill Development, Fitness
Possibly another reason why Dougherty’s officers responded to and recovered from the incident so well was the training they received. Self defense, verbal de-escalation, first aid, CPR, chemical spill response, bomb threat response, disaster drills, active shooter drills, fire drills and handcuffing are some of the topics covered by the courses offered to Aultman security personnel.
E.D. and psych unit staff also receive Crisis Prevention training that includes verbal de-escalation techniques.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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