PROTECTING COMPANIES AGAINST VIOLENCE IS A GROWING PART OF SECURITY BUSINESS

DAYTON, Ohio - The security business that former police officer Charles
Carroll runs used to concentrate on one source of trouble in the workplace:
drugs. Now, there's almost as much demand for help protecting companies and
their executives against violence.

"It's just an example of how life has changed," said Carroll. "The days of
an idle threat are gone."

Carroll started Aset Corp. 10 years ago with a focus on rooting out illegal
drugs. That's still the bulk of his business, but protective services now
make up 40 percent.

One of the largest private security companies in the country, Aset
(pronounced like "asset") has offices in Dayton, Toledo, Indianapolis,
Kansas City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Charlotte, N.C. It has 240
full-time employees, including former Secret Service and FBI agents.

They tail workers who pose threats, or monitor them in the workplace with
video cameras. Executives under their protection drive cars tracked by
global positioning satellites.

In one case, Carroll said, a client company planned to fire an employee who
had compiled what appeared a hit list of co-workers and executives.

"All the red flags were there," Carroll said.

He said the company gave the worker a chance to resign with generous
severance. Aset provided security at the building after the worker left and
put the former employee under surveillance for 72 hours.

Cost to the company: $19,000.

"It's almost like an insurance policy," said Carroll, whose employees make
up to $125 an hour.

Another time, Carroll had to charter a Lear jet late at night to send a
six-man response team to a company in North Carolina where a worker
threatened to shoot someone.

He twice sent a six-man team to Georgia for a company whose workers were
doing a lot of overtime because demand for its product was high.

"People were snapping," said Carroll.

He said companies are increasingly hiring his firm before they fire
someone. A security team assesses the vulnerability of the executives,
co-workers and the building, and remains in place for up to 10 days after
the firing.

"There's an incubation period where you are trying to determine if this
person's emotions are going to turn to anger and anger to revenge," said
Carroll. "All of a sudden instead of just threatening somebody, they're
coming through the door with a weapon."

Homicide is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the
United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 709
workplace homicides in 1998, 12 percent of the 6,026 fatal work injuries.

In October, a gunman shot and killed seven Xerox employees at a warehouse
in Honolulu. Two people were killed and two others wounded in a shooting at
a boat-repair shop in Seattle.

Authorities say workplace rage was a factor in a July shooting spree in
which a gunman killed nine people and injured 12 others in two Atlanta
office buildings.

Carroll said he first thought the surge of high-profile workplace shootings
was temporary, but now isn't sure.

"I think it's going to get worse, not better," he said. "It's changed the
way we do business."

Carroll said the difficulty people seem to have controlling their anger
could be linked to the faster pace of society driven by computers and high
technology, greater job stress because of increased consumer demand, and
fear of the unknown with the coming of the new millennium.

"People just sense they don't have control of their lives any more," said
Carroll. "The full-scale, booming economy has a dark, deep side that we've
not stopped to consider."

Mark Braverman, author of the book "Preventing Workplace Violence," echoed
Carroll's view.

"Workplaces are real pressure cookers," said Braverman, a consultant with
CMG Associates in Newton, Mass. "Employers are having to do more with less.
The pressure for productivity is enormous. I think definitely people have
shorter fuses."

Braverman said beefing up security alone may not be enough. He said
employers need to seek out the root causes for employee discontent and show
them that they care.

He said warning signs of an employee about to erupt can include such things
as change in personality, irritability, becoming withdrawn, or a change in
work habits.

Carroll said employees must be alert and unafraid to report unusual behavior.

"I see people with fear in their eyes. They're scared," said Carroll. "They
don't want to snitch on each other. But now they're being forced to make
some pretty tough decisions - whether or not to come forward and talk about
this guy or whether or not to just let it happen."