THE LONG ARM of the LAW

HR Magazine, April, 2001 by Steve Bates

Law enforcement authorities may visit a worksite for many reasons. Designated managers should know what to do when the police come calling.

A police officer shows up in a company's lobby with an arrest warrant naming an employee in connection with a traffic offense or a domestic dispute. Or a sheriff's deputy walks in, demanding to serve a subpoena to a worker.

Would you know what to do? How about receptionists--do they have a formal plan to follow?

For many employers the answer to each question is an emphatic no, say HR professionals and workplace security consultants. Such appearances by police are more frequent than the explosive incidents of workplace violence that make headlines nationwide. But these routine visits by law enforcement officials often result in needless confusion and embarrassment for HR professionals, managers and employees.

Security consultant Philip Deming, SPHR, of Philip S. Deming & Associates in King of Prussia, Pa., witnessed such an incident a few years ago at a Pennsylvania work-site. What should have been a relatively smooth delivery of court papers turned into a shouting match "that just snowballed" out of control.

A constable was attempting to serve an employee with a court order to stay away from his estranged wife. A supervisor escorted the constable to the worker's desk in view of dozens of his fellow employees. "The employee became very abusive toward his supervisor, yelling and screaming," recalls Deming. "Then the receptionist panicked and called the police. It was extremely embarrassing for everybody."

The next morning, Deming says, the company adopted written procedures--including one to handle legal document matters privately--to minimize or prevent problems in connection with visits by police, sheriffs deputies, document servers and other agents of the legal system.

Law enforcement officials, lawyers and security consultants say every worksite should have such guidelines, and employers should not wait until after an incident such as the one Deming witnessed.

These guidelines must be written broadly enough to cover the many possible scenarios in which authorities show up at a place of business and demand to see one or more employees. But, say the experts, the policy must make clear that one particular person--such as an HR executive or other manager--is designated to handle such visits and must be contacted immediately.

This person needs to be prepared for almost anything.

"There really is no gold standard" or universally accepted ground rules for authorities entering a workplace to make an arrest or conduct other official business, says Michael Brasfield, chief of police in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a member of the Private Sector Liaison Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The American criminal justice system is highly decentralized, with many local police and sheriff's departments, not to mention state and federal law enforcement agencies. These agencies and their law enforcement officers have their own methods of handling official matters in worksites. There is no guarantee that authorities will notify an employer in advance if they intend to enter a worksite-- even for a routine matter.

Security experts say HR professionals and managers should keep some basic principles in mind when dealing with authorities:

* If police come to a worksite unannounced, it's probably important.

* Police do not want to create a scene or endanger anyone--same as you.

* Be polite and responsive. Tell the authorities you intend to cooperate, but be cognizant of your rights and the rights of employees while responding to authorities.

Planning Is the Key

These principles might seem like a tall order, but security consultants say they can be broken down into a number of commonsense steps. It all begins with planning.

"Clients call all the time saying, 'The sheriff's at the door wanting to serve a warrant. What do I do?'" says Louis Obdyke IV, an attorney with Jackson Walker in Austin, Texas, and a member of the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) Workplace Health and Safety Committee. "The company needs to look into this at a planning stage before something like this happens," says Obdyke. "Upper management needs to sit down and think this through."

For large worksites, consider having security consultants tour the facilities and help develop contingency plans for a variety of serious incidents, such as a fire or bomb threat. That same consultant can probably assist with a plan for responding to police showing up with an arrest warrant or with questions for an employee.

HR professionals must put the plan into writing as company policy and distribute it to all employees, security experts say. Workers--particularly receptionists--should be given training on the policy. Any time a temporary receptionist is brought in, he or she should be given a copy of the procedures and advised of the importance of adhering to them.

Some security consultants offer checklists of key steps to be taken when law enforcement representatives show up. (See "When the Police Come Calling," on next page.)