July 1 sees public enclosed spaces such as pubs go smoke-free.
How do places – to be exact, people responsible for security – enforce such rules, given that there’s less respect around? Mark Rowe reports.
So, you have put up the no-smoking signs in your place of work or pub or club, or mall, or cathedral even, as the law requires and as is on the cover of the official booklet, titled ‘Everything you nedd to prepare for the new smokefree law on July 1, 2007’. The last page reminds you that you, in charge of a premises or vehicle, have a legal responsibility to prevent people from smoking in them. And while smokers can get a fixed penalty notice for breaking the law, managers for failing to prevent smoking can get a court fine. The booklet offers some ‘practical steps’ to deal with people smoking. Point to the no-smoking signs and ask them to go outside; tell them of the offence. And if the customer or employee refuses? Remind them. If they won’t leave or stop, for the customer, ‘implement your normal procedure for anti-social or illegal behaviour in your premises’. Keep a record of the incident, and outcome. Finally: “If physical violence is threatened by a person smoking, we suggest you notify and/or seek assistance from the police.”
Perhaps a pause here for any hollow laughs from readers at the thought of police answering a call at 11pm on Friday because a pub-goer is getting threatening at being told not to light up. As reported last issue, door firms report from Scotland, where the smoking ban is already (as in the Republic of Ireland), that it has broadly come in well. But the point is that as the official guidance implies, if there is any conflict over smokers objecting to the new law, it’s for premises managers to handle in the same ways as they deal with other conflict, whether barring people for being drunk or under-age, or asking people to leave – whether a pub or an accident or emergency department – because they are loud or aggressive, perhaps drink- or drugs-related. To be exact, it is for the security staff to be the ones to say no.
That brings risk. “Door supervisers and other front-line staff in licensed retail premises play a key role in ensuring the safety of staff and customers … It is unfortunate that physical intervention needs to be considered but it is a reality for staff in higher risk security roles such as door supervision.” So wrote Met Police Commander Crhis Allison, head of the licensing portfolio fgor ACPO, in the foreword to the good practice guide, Physical Intervention: Reducing Risk, by a project group chaired by Bill Fox of trainers Maybo, for the British Institute of Innkeepers and Skills for Security. As the guide notes, the SIA has put communication and conflict management in its licence to practice for door staff ‘as a core-training competency’. But the guide speaks also of a previous absense of guide on physical intervention – resulting in door staff ‘developing their skills on an ad-hoc basis, for example, through martial arts, contract sports and from peers’.
