It's not as cut and dried as this - a lone working risk assessment should be carried out, this would ID the correct precautions.

Clairel's right but you'd expect a swifter security response than that, wouldn't you? S'pose they were engrossed in their puzzlebook.

Terry - It's possible that the supermarket did have training and procedures in place for the situation you described. Perhaps the checkout employee had been trained to first try and verbally de-fuse the drunken customers and, on finding that she wasn't having much effect, then decided to summon help, perhaps with a covert alarm button at the checkout. As for the apparent delay in the police arriving, you don't know when they were summoned and whether or not they were engaged elsewhere at the time. With major financial cuts affecting police forces across the UK, it's likely that there will be some reduction in front-line officer numbers even though forces say that they will try to keep such reductions to a minimum. Picking up Clairel's comments, I've heard it said from different sources that an experienced female police officer can be more effective at quelling a drunken disorder in a pub simply by using her voice than several male officers going in and using physical force. Apparently most men, even when drunk, are reluctant to physically attack a woman and/or tend to be more likely to respond to an authorative female voice than a male one. Though these seem to be reasonable explanations, it would be useful to know what others think and particularly if they have any proven psychological basis. Also, what measures do the Police and pub operators find best for quelling female drunks?! The situation described is likely to be a very common one in late-night/all-night supermarkets throughout the UK, and it's likely that many of them will have appropriate measures in place. Are there any forum users with retail connections who can confirm or refute this supposition?

A friend of mine owns a pub and there was a female "bouncer" on the door for a few years. She was a only about 5' 6" and slim build, and she had more success in diffusing any situations than her male counterparts- who all tended to be large with shaved heads. Aside from her training in such situations, I would say that the protagonists were unwilling to have a go at a female, as soon as they saw her as door staff they calmed down. Since then, on the occasions where there is trouble, the protagonists are not so willing to leave the establishment. Some have squared up to the door staff.

All big chain retailers will train (or should have) trained staff working any shift in conflict management. This is not just a problem in establishments which retail alcohol in late night premises. Verbal and physical abuse of service sector staff is on the increase - it’s a wider problem in society - I mean anyone who can throw a brick at the fire service attending a fire or a police officer attending an incident!! Alas we see it all to often. Its very difficult to get the balance of controls right for any specific store - whether that guards, panic devices and other measures but the fact it is if you want to make money at time of risk (late night retail) you can expect staff to be at risk then you need to protect them and find the controls that fit the situation. As for any prosecution by an LA for this I'm not aware of any in retail for this particular - if any detail is available on that I'd be interested in a read.