Mall security's No. 1 job: Protect people from harm

When mayhem breaks loose in a mall, security guards have this basic assignment: Get people out of harm's way, and let the police move in.

Gunfire and hostage situations are a rarity at malls. But with the large number of shoppers, the relative ease of getting inside, and rising anxiety about terrorist attacks, shopping centers are preparing for that possibility.

The risk was underscored Sunday when a gunman opened fire at Tacoma Mall, wounding six people and taking several hostage before surrendering to police.

"It gives you that pause. Boy, are we up to date on our training? Are we up to date on our response training?" said Clark Rice, security director for Bellevue Square shopping center.

In fact, the Bellevue mall had done its annual evacuation drill with merchants and local emergency responders in October.

During the holiday season, Bellevue Square sees enough people in a day to populate a city — sometimes more than 60,000, Rice said.

Security work at a large mall involves careful planning with emergency responders, mall security and merchants, he said. Rice oversees a force as big as a medium-sized police department — between 50 and 100. That number rises during the holidays and is beefed up with Bellevue police officers.

Rice meets monthly with local police and fire officials and offers safety training to merchants and their employees.

While some shopping centers once had gun-toting guards, that's become largely a thing of the past, amid concerns about ricocheting bullets, adequate training and liability, Rice said. The Bellevue Square security operation, which he started running 24 years ago, has never been armed, he said.

"There's no real safe place that you could fire a weapon," said Rice, who sits on the security committee for the International Council of Shopping Centers. "You fire a round off down a shopping center and all that concrete, who knows where that bullet's going to end up. So you are coordinating with the police that are highly trained with those kinds of situations and have SWAT teams and negotiators and all that."

The heightened concern about terrorism has moved violent attacks further up the list of possible threats, said Rice. Once, terrorism ranked well below natural disasters such as earthquakes, he said.

Still, the unexpected can put planning to the test.

In September 2000, a bank robber sought refuge in the Nordstrom Grill restaurant at Bellevue Square. A gunfight broke out when police entered the restaurant, sending patrons diving for cover. The robber was killed.

At the time, Bellevue Square security personnel said they hadn't been notified ahead of time that the man had been spotted there.

The police "just went in to check the guy out, and it explodes," Rice told The Seattle Times after the incident. "There was no time."

At Westfield Southcenter mall in Tukwila, acting general manager Kristin Flores said she didn't know of a gun ever having been fired inside the mall. But in September, two people were fatally shot in the mall's parking lot.

Flores declined to discuss that incident, or any security details. "All I can tell you is we always do our utmost to provide a pleasant shopping experience for our customers," she said.

Likewise, Angela Hardy, area director of mall marketing for the Simon Property Group, which owns Tacoma Mall and Northgate Mall, would not discuss Tacoma Mall's security measures.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com