Negligent Security and the Role of Our Industry

After reading this article, my hope is that you, your colleagues, your company and the industry will take note and understand that the decisions we make daily have significant impact on not just our clients but their employees, tenants, customers and visitors. The impacts are not just a poorly wired building, propped-open door, faulty camera feed or a physical access control system (PACS) running a 12-year-old, end-of-life version of software. No, this is bigger. In some cases, victims of violence dealing with years of surgeries, rehab, a life as a quadriplegic and in some cases a family planning a funeral. It also means millions and in some cases tens or hundreds of millions in damages via settlement or jury award.

We are talking about negligent security, and our industry needs to know what this is, the magnitude, why it’s important and how we do better.

If you’ve never heard of this term, you are not alone, in fact you are likely in the majority. As I recently shared this information with colleagues, friends and industry contacts, it seems as though this has flown under the radar, and my goal is to change that. Moving forward, this will become a series of articles where I report on the latest court filings, cases that have settled or moved to a jury trial.

Overview

Negligent security (in personal injury law) refers to a type of premises liability claim where a property owner, property manager and homeowner association (HOA) is sued for failing to provide reasonable security measures, resulting in someone being injured or harmed by a criminal act that could have been prevented.

Here’s a breakdown:

Legal basis:

• Property owners have a duty of care to maintain a safe environment for lawful visitors. This includes taking reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable crimes.

Typical defendants:

• Businesses such as apartment complexes, condominiums, hotels, shopping centers, nightclubs, parking garages, sports arenas, music concerts/festivals and other public-access properties.

Typical plaintiffs:

• Victims of assaults, robberies, sexual assaults or shootings that occurred on someone else’s property. These can include employees, tenants, customers or visitors to the property.

Core allegation:

• The injury would not have occurred if the property had adequate lighting, locks, cameras, trained security personnel or access controls. Additionally, the installation, maintenance and upkeep of the Technology can also become a point of negligence. The property may have installed cameras or PACS, but when was the last time the software was upgraded, firmware revision implemented and/or nonworking systems fixed or upgraded?

Goal of the lawsuit:

• To recover damages for physical injuries, emotional trauma and financial losses caused by the crime and by the property owner’s failure to provide proper security.

In short, negligent security cases attempt to hold property owners legally accountable for crimes that happen because they ignored known risks or failed to take reasonable precautions to protect employees, tenants, customers or visitors. On the other hand, some may argue that the property owners did all they could to protect their property and the people who work, visit or live there. Ultimately, it is up to a jury to determine who is responsible for the injury or death that resulted from the incident.

The Security Industry Is Being Scrutinized

Now that we have examined what is happening in the legal community regarding these types of personal injury/premises liability cases, I think it’s important for our security industry to realize that whether you are directly involved with an end-user client (architect, engineer, consultant and security integrator, to name a few) or somewhat removed from that relationship (technology manufacturer, software developer and distribution, to name a few) we should all feel some responsibility for guiding, educating and advising our clients as to the proper industry standards for the design, engineering, procurement, installation and maintenance of our systems.

It’s important to acknowledge that we all have limitations of liability clauses in our contracts, reseller agreements, distribution agreements and consulting agreements, but I wonder if our industry truly understands the gravity and magnitude of what is transpiring in the civil courts and the bright light that has been cast on our industry and technology.

By the numbers

The Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator states in FY 2023–2024 (July 1, 2023–June 30, 2024) there were ~342 “negligent security” cases filed statewide in circuit civil courts. That is an average of 28.5 per month.

According to my research, there are 100+ law firms within the state of Florida, who advertise on their website that they offer “negligent security” services to their clients. Keep in mind, most law firms have multiple attorneys on staff, so the number of lawyers offering these services is likely two to three times the number of law firms.

One Florida-based law firm, who will not be named, advertises on their website, “We have litigated nearly 500 cases involving severe injury or death due to inadequate security, recovering nearly $1 billion in verdicts and settlements for our clients since 2007.”

Additionally, in a recent Florida “negligent security” case, the jury found the property management company, HOA, security guard company and tenant liable and negligent for the death of a young man in 2021. The jury awarded $100,000,000 in damages assigning the following % to each defendant:

• 57%: Property management company
• 18%: HOA
• 18%: Security guard company
• 7%: Tenant (girlfriend of deceased)

This represents that a Florida jury found the property management company 57% responsible, liable and negligent in the security and safety of a condominium they manage. 

Moving Forward

I will be interviewing those directly involved or potentially affected by “negligent security” cases, such as industry leaders, C-Suite executives, attorneys, insurance companies, technology manufacturers, integrators and architects, engineers and consultants. If you would like to be included in this series, please reach out to me at cjohnson@ngasa.us.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association.

This article originally appeared in the Access Control Executive Brief newsletter.