Credit union executives who work in the half-dozen downtown Dallas branches close to where the shooting ambush unfolded last Thursday, which left five police officers dead, are coming to terms with the tragedy that shocked the nation.
What's more, executives said they are reviewing and updating their disaster response plans to include violent, life-threatening or dangerous events that occur outside their branches.
Safety and security experts said there are steps all credit unions can take to help save the lives of employees and members if a similar shooting scenario were to occur unexpectedly.
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"Everything is tense. The whole (downtown) atmosphere is tense," President/CEO Deborah A. Lohrke said Monday morning after the July 7 shooting from her office at the $12.8 million Neiman Marcus Group Employees Federal Credit Union. "Everything's still closed down at the crime scene right down the street from us. Yes, it's of course very tense and there's no getting around that."
Following the incident, police investigators closed a 25-block area of downtown, which forced businesses, including three credit union branches, to close on Friday.
The credit unions affected were the $591 million Neighborhood Credit Union's branch on Elm Street, the $111 million Liberty One Credit Union's branch on Commerce Street and Neiman Marcus Group Employees' Main Street branch.
"One of the primary reasons that we closed the credit union is that we didn't know if there were IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," Lohrke said.
Micah Johnson, 25, the sole sniper in the attack who was killed by police, reportedly said that he planted bombs. But the threat was fake.
Four of the fallen police officers worked for the Dallas Police Department, which is part of the core membership of the $357 million City Credit Union. The Dallas PD helped found the credit union in 1942. The 42,178-member credit union also serves people who work for other Dallas city government departments and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit. One DART police officer was also killed in last week's shooting.
"All of us at City CU are trying to find 'normal' after last week's tragedy. DART and City of Dallas employees are a visible segment of our membership and many are friends of our City CU family," City CU President/CEO Sharon Moore said. "I think we are all grieving in some way for the lives lost, the devastation to the families of the fallen officers, and to the long-term impact to our community and nation."
Read more about how Dallas credit unions are dealing with the aftermath of the shootings and what every credit union should be doing to prepare for violent scenarios in the July 20, 2016 print issue of CU Times.
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Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
