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A Personal Approach to Door Supervising

The Colour Code and Emotional Awareness

After a night on the door a DS will go home either mentally exhausted, emotionally drained or still hyper tense. This emotional state is created by the emotional roller coaster ride that all DS take on their nightly vigil. The constant stress of watching, waiting, coping, stopping, challenging, risk assessing, searching and facing down will exact a toll.

This emotional state is best understood through an adaptation of the Colour Code Theory used by the Goshinkwai Combat System in the SDF (Int'l),  the late Col. Jeff Cooper, the US Marine Corps and Geoff Thompson. There are four colours in this theory,  each colour representing a different level of emotional awareness. These are White - Yellow - Orange - Red.

Throughout the night, you will be constantly shifting your emotions through this colour code state. Hopefully you will stay out of the White and the Red. The emotional highs will stay with you for over ninety minutes after your shift ends, so there is a need to wind down. To reiterate from other sections, it is important that you do not transport the emotional baggage from one incident to the next. It is inappropriate to address a genuine complaint with the disposition you needed to cope with Mr. Anus earlier. Likewise, it is inappropriate to address Mr. Anus in the same way as you addressed a minor query earlier.

Triggers

A trigger is defined as any form of patron behaviour that demands a response from you. It is impossible to learn door work from the printed page. The printed page is only, at best, an aide memoir for practical instruction or personal experience on a specific subject.  The preceding and mind numbing check lists are difficult to remember and apply, but with experience, you will become competent at applying all these pointers.  Until you can do this, you are simply bluffing your way.  Always try to stay focused on your specific task and remain emotionally active at all times.  That way, your  tasking acts as a trigger for your behaviour.

When you watch and work the crowd, you are pre-empting their negative behaviour with your own behaviour. Your correct use of  body language, dress, demeanor and other forms of social interaction with the crowd is very influential. On some occasions,  your pre-emptive and pro-active behaviour may not prevent  negative behaviour from surfacing in the crowd. Here, the patrons behaviour will trigger a response from you.  For example, you may observe the slow, casual friendly interaction of the patrons changing to a jerky and reptilian interaction. This would trigger off your immediate intervention.  Another trigger would be created  when someone leaves their seat or leaves the venue. You immediately check out the area they vacated for lost or suspicious items. 

There is one other occasion when you are on a hair trigger. That is when you are dealing with a potentially violent situation. You are in close contact with a troublesome patron, watching their behaviour and analysing their demeanor. As soon as their behaviour looks like crossing the boundary into violence, you are off like a bullet out of a gun, before it happens. This will be covered in more detail later on.

Risk Assessment (S.W.A.T.)

The emotional turmoil experienced in stressful situations will disrupt your tactical thinking. Quick decisions made in the heat of the moment can end up being reviewed by you from either a hospital bed or a jail cell.

Risk assessment is the dynamic process of identifying, assessing and then reacting properly to all the incidents you face as a DS. Screw up on this task and your life or freedom will be in jeopardy. Never enter a situation without first, assessing it and then second, assessing your ability to resolve the situation.

Violent situations have a life of their own which is very unpredictable. For example, when you jump into an affray to break up the fighters, the crowd can take at least two courses of action. First, they may move away from the fight in order to make your job easier. Second, they may obstruct your approach to the fight and then join in the fight to kick you lifeless.

There are four steps to Risk Assessment;

1. Identify the risk, well in advance.
2. Inform the full team of the threat. That is, if you are part of a team.
3. Pre-empt and defuse the situation in order to reduce the risk.
4. React positively when the situation goes ballistic.

As you walk around the floor of the venue, you must be constantly assessing the mood and disposition of the crowd so that all incidents, when they occur, do not come as a surprise. The practical consideration of the following four factors will help you to assess your situation and then help you to formulate the appropriate course of action. These four factors are:

1. Strength
2. Weapons
3. Aim
4. Terrain

1. Strength

• Do you have someone good enough to cover your back while you try to resolve the situation?
• Is the opposition either physically weak or strong. This may influence the strength your physical response.
• Will you work as a team in order to resolve the problem as fast as possible?
• In some cases there are two different groups to contend with, two sets of friends of the two antagonists.
• Are these two well bonded groups that will carry out a group attack if you intervene?
• Are there any leaders or sensible people within the group/groups who will take charge of the situation?
• How drunk are the antagonists? More drink = easier to unbalance+higher pain threshold+more unpredictable.
• The strength of your physical response must be reasonable and also enough to neutralise the fighting.

2. Weapons

• Have the staff been doing their job of keeping the empty bottles and glasses to a minimum?
• You must not, and your back up must not have anything resembling a weapon in your possession.
• If the fists are flying, are there any bottles, knives or spikes in their hands?
• Your body weapons used in attack and counter attack must not exceed reasonable force.

3. Aim

• Your primary aim at all times is survival. Never walk into your death, injury or incarceration.
• Your secondary aim is to escalate your force to dominate the force used by the opposition.
• Your tertiary aim is to resort to instrumental violence before you are too physically tired to control the threat.
• Your aim at all times is the protection of yourself, staff, patrons and property through the use of reasonable force.
• Resolve or remove the problem subject as fast as possible.

4. Terrain

• Where are the nearest exits to the incident?
• How will the doors open? Outwards or inwards?
• Do the doors have solid side panels decorated similarly to the door. You can get jammed here on the take away.
• Is the take away route clear of slip and trip hazards, crowds and bar debris?
• Having a bad day at the office? Use the walls to jamb punchers against. This reduces the impact of their punches because they can't draw their fists back.

Team Work and Back Up

In order to maintain control and good order at your venue, on a permanent basis, you must be skilled in DS team work. When all the DS staff have a clear role, the whole team will be capable of reacting positively to any incident. The aims of teamwork training and the practical application of that training is to;

• Allow you to present a professional and humane front to the patrons and your employer
• End problem situations fast without stressing out the non-participating patrons
• Keep you out of jail
• Keep you out of hospital

The tactics used to meet these aims are based on the two basic principles of door and floor work;

• Mutually support each other at all times
• Preempt all negative behaviour from whatever source

In all close combat systems you are expected to fight with an interval or reactionary gap between  opponents. This safety gap allows the opponents to react to each others movements. As a DS, you do not have this reactionary gap, you have to communicate with the patrons at very close range. For example, the guy at the door is in your face asking why you are denying him access. You are unable to back down, run away or acquiesce to his demands. Shouting across a crowded dance floor or bar is also out of the question. You must get in close to the ill behaved patron and speak directly to them. This close up approach will give them a chance to calm down without any loss of dignity.

When you are in close and talking, you are vulnerable to attack. It is essential that you always operate with back up, even for low key routine incident handling. The greater the threat, the larger the back up required. There will be occasions when the back up is insufficient to control the situation. In this scenario, your verbal skills  offer a better and perhaps only chance of resolving the situation.

After the Fight

After you break up a fight or argument, the emotions of all those involved will be running high and loose. The atmosphere remains charged with an emotional energy that has no label. Individual interpretations of the ongoing events by the antagonists will provide that  label. In the worst possible scenario, their interpretations of their emotional state  make them to resort to physical violence.  The trigger for this violence is usually something simple, such as, an inappropriate word, facial expression or body posture from the opposition.  It is the job of the DS to stage manage this drama and stop another eruption  of reptilian behaviour.

As soon as you get the antagonists talking, get them walking as well, in different directions of course. If the main aggressor goes out the front door, the other aggressor must be directed to another exit. This is a tricky stage of the operation because it may be deemed that you are bringing into question that persons ability to handle themselves. Their friends may also be in the same frame of mind and they will also have to be cooled down emotionally. If necessary, tell lies in order to maintain the uneasy peace. Tell them that the front door has been locked and the only door available is the side door.

Your aim is to delay the departure of the second group and get them onto the street without direct confrontation taking place between the groups. If the confrontation was serious or potentially dangerous, it may be necessary for the head supervisor or bar manager to contact the police and inform them of the situation. After all, the reputation of the venue will suffer if some unfortunate is kicked to death outside your venue after a bar fight. Getting the police on side for the spill out from the venue will help to keep the peace and save lives.

Summary

• Intervene directly between the antagonists and engage them in conversation in order to deescalate the situation
• Encourage friends of the antagonists to deescalate the situation
• Stagger the departure of the antagonists through different exits
• Inform the police

The Log Book

Some venues may have no log book  (Occurrence Book) or simply produce a Page a Day diary with no clear guidelines on how to fill the log in, or what to report or what entries are required. Always use the log book to record the times of any reportable incident immediately after you deal with that incident.   (Occurrence Book) or simply produce a Page a Day diary with no clear guidelines on how to fill the log in, or what to report or what entries are required. Always use the log book to record the times of any reportable incident immediately after you deal with that incident. At this stage your hands will be shaking from the adrenalin dump so that your hand writing will be below standard. You may also feel more like shoving the pen up the reptiles nose. If one of the bar staff are available, ask them to write the short report for you. When the bar is closed for the night, you can sit down and write a more detailed and legible incident report before you go home. The Log Book must record:

• All the names of DS on duty that night
• Times on and off duty
• Maximum numbers of patrons in that night
• Reports of any security/safety/fire equipment problems/property/structural damage observed by the DS that will require action by the duty bar manager
• Short one line reports on any accidents, violence, access denials, escorts off etc. as they occur. A more detailed report can be made later on that night as they occur. A more detailed report can be made later on that night as they occur. A more detailed report can be made later on that night
• Any found items
• Any items reported lost
• Any confiscated weapons/items/drugs

The log book will also include details of individuals who were denied access, for some of the following reasons:

• They were drunk or under the influence of drugs.
• Did not conform to the dress code of your venue.
• Refused to be searched.
• Had a reputation for disruptive or criminal behaviour or are barred.
• Were under the legal age. 
• Were unable to produce a valid proof of age document.
• Refused to pay the entrance fee.
• Clearly had an attitude problem that would have distressed other patrons.
• May have caused the venue to exceed the legal crowding limits.

The CCTV  Security Cameras

The security video is your friend, it will keep you out of jail. When you report to a venue for the first time,  always check out the quality of the system as well as each camera's field of view. Make a sketch of the floor layout and   the outside of your venue. After you have completed that task, go round the building and plot the position of each camera.  Also use the video screen to confirm this and plot the camera views on the floor layout sketch. The camera angles may not be suitable  to suit your operational plans. This includes your assessment of potential trouble spots, ejection routes and all exits.  Make a point of informing the duty manager that you need these cameras repositioned to suit your  security risk assessment. There is no use arguing it out in court after the event when you are accused of assault. A simple adjustment of a security camera well before the event would have cleared you. 

Dragging a bum off camera to sort them out looks just like that on camera. It will prove more productive to stay in shot or back off into shot when you expect it to go ballistic. It is better to interact in front of a security camera with those involved in anti-social behaviour. This can and will be used in the event of allegations made against you. Use the video records to get even. You are not a punch bag for drunken bums. After a ballistic situation, get yourself to hospital to record and repair any personal injuries. Then report the incident through legal channels. Rest assured the bums are also doing that. Expect to go to the police station at any time. You will have to make statements as either a victim, a witness or as an alleged assaulter. Hopefully, an honest statement will be supported by the security video.

Every so often you are the reluctant in-house entertainment. You will fight alone and sometimes go down alone. Do not expect anybody to leap in and help, ever. Expect armchair pundits to approach you over the next week with 'know it all' comments;

• I would have helped you out but....

• I'm not trying to tell you your job, but....

• You should have hit the bum harder...

• That's the first time I've seen a bouncer take a hit.....

• Do you not think you should have......

• Ole Jim Bridger would have done it different...

Resist the compulsion to rip their turnip heads off. Don't listen to this crap, you have more important duties to complete.