subject: Dealing With Suspect Parcels [print this page] Firstly no matter how low you feel you are in the food chain in your company, if you think a letter or parcel that you or the company has received is suspicious, then phone the police. Inform your supervisor, by all means, but they often as not have had no training in dealing with suspicious devices, the police have though.
This is because that your supervisor may just think that you are being silly, but if you are at all suspicious then it is better to take action rather than have an incident occur, someone get injured and then your supervisor say sorry to you after someone has been killed or injured.
Secondly if your company is a prominent British or American one that has interests in Afghanistan or Iraq then you should be doubly vigilant, and in particular you should have training for every employee dealing with mail, such that they cannot only identify any suspicious letters or parcels, but also that they know what to do in the event of such suspicion.
This is because it is all very well being able to spot a potential bomb or chemical threat, but you do need to have a procedure in place so that people know what to do in the event of such a threat. E.g. you need a bomb and chemical threat procedure in place, before you have an incident occur.
Firstly if in any doubt at all call the police and they will immediately take the threat seriously and send out someone who is trained in assessing such threats, you are not trained in formal threat assessment, they are, and they would far rather you err on the side of caution than not call them.
Clear the immediate area around the suspect item, in an office building this may even mean evacuating the floors above. You can actually get the police to come out at any time and advise you on how to deal with any suspected chemical or bomb parcels, and as part of this they will advise you on how to immediately deal with such threats, including what areas to evacuate. This can then form part of your policy.
As a minimum invest in some training for your post room staff as to how to spot suspect parcels, often this training can prove invaluable, as most suspect parcels never actually get past a companies mail room.
Again if in any doubt then call the police, if you are overruled on this by a superior and you are still worried then call them anyway, it is better to be safe than sorry.
