Don't Be a Hero: The Risks of Employees Resisting Robberies

Fox News had this headline today: Army veteran fired from CVS after trying to stop robbery.

I won't bother recapping the story, as it's pretty short and you can quickly read it yourself. 

Not surprisingly, lots of people are all bent out of shape about this, rallying behind the fired veteran. I'm not usually one to play apologist for large corporations, but there are valid reasons employees are told not to resist robbery attempts.

Examples:

* According to the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, "When faced with an employee who chooses to actively resist and is in a face-to-face confrontation, robbers may resort to injuring the worker to avoid apprehension. Higher injury rates are consistently found to be correlated with measures employees take during the robbery."

* A 2006 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that, "Resisting the perpetrator of the crime was consistently related to increased risk for injury for both employees and customers, and the risk was higher for robberies than for all violent crimes combined." The study also found that customers are especially at risk when an employee resists a robbery.

*A 2015 study published in the Journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine concluded, "Customers had higher injury risk when employees resisted the perpetrator, compared with robberies where employees did not resist. Employee resistance against a perpetrator during a robbery increased customer injury risk. Businesses can train employees to not resist during a robbery, providing benefits for both customers and the business itself."

I'll conclude with some wisdom from self-defense expert Marc 'Animal' MacYoung at No Nonsense Self-Defense... 

The—and we use this term loosely—good news is that robbers tend to be more 'job oriented.' They want what they want and and if they get it, then they are done. In many ways this makes them safer to deal with—if you cooperate. 

That is to say their motives are based on financial gain rather than  gaining the more subjective and fluid 'props'  common among the younger, less experienced and dysfunctional criminals. As far as robbers are concerned they are offering you a choice, cooperate and give them what they want or be hurt. If you cooperate there is no reason to hurt you. In fact, if the target is the business money you may be no more involved than being ordered to the floor while the cash is collected. 

This is why—unless you are ordered to a secondary location—it is advisable to cooperate with a mugger/robber who has gotten the drop on you. This gives your best chance of not being hurt.