Why doctors are upgrading their personal security

While doctors base the entirety of their professional lives on caring for others, many could do a better job taking precautions to care for their own personal safety, as well as the safety of their families and their property.Nicodemo Milano, the senior director of the specialized services department for the Commissionnaires du Québec, a provincial arm of the not-for-profit national security company Commissionnaires, says doctors, academics, medical researchers and other healthcare professionals, tend to be “nonchalant” when it comes to all manner of security issues including the possibility of property damage, violence, intimidation, murder or fraud.While some threats can trace their origins back to workplace-based interactions or doctors being high-income earners, others exist well outside of people’s professional or even personal control.Milano, a retired Montreal Police Service officer who spent two years during the pandemic as director of security at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, explained that due to current geopolitical tensions, even identifying as part of an ethnic group or having ties to certain countries or religions can place targets on people. It’s that kind of situation that appears to have played a role in Dr. Emmanuel Moss quitting as chief of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital, and moving to the United States (he cited rising antisemitism in Montreal as part of the reason for his move).“Just like any other person in society, a doctor is part of the community, is part of a culture, and these tensions have created situations where there are risks to their lives,” said Milano.Common crimesThough some sources say after rising for a few years, crime severity dipped slightly last year, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute took a deep dive into Canadian crime statistics and found that violent crime severity has been increasing across Canada, including in the Far North, the Prairies, and Atlantic Canada. It’s not just a Toronto or GTA problem.Taking that trend into consideration and pairing it with the reality that physicians, on average, tend to earn more than the average Canadian, it just makes sense to evaluate one’s personal security, says Dr. Benjamin Barankin, a dermatologist, medical director and founder of the Toronto Dermatology Centre. Although he has never been the victim of a crime, he has certainly spent time taking steps to ensure his family and his property are safe.“It’s just more general caution. I think nicer neighborhoods get broken into more often,” he said. “Physicians tend to live in some of those nicer neighborhoods and have nicer cars on average, but I wouldn’t say that I personally feel targeted in any way.”Practical stepsStephen Decoteau, senior vice-president of actuarial services and underwriting at Desjardins General Insurance Group, suggests taking an approach to security that should sound very familiar to most doctors.“From an insurance perspective, prevention is always preferable to recovery after a loss has occurred,” he said in an email interview. “For physicians and other healthcare professionals, the goal is not to create a fortress, but to take practical, thoughtful steps that help protect their families, their property and their peace of mind.”That’s exactly what Dr. Barankin has done. He has installed Door Guardians (a type of childproof auxiliary lock), switched to Medeco high-security locking systems, deployed door security bars and added security glazing tape to accessible windows. He also has an AI-based security system that is designed to ward off potential threats that are picked up by cameras and monitors, rather than just sounding an alarm once somebody has broken in.When it comes to his cars, he and his wife drive hybrid or fully electric vehicles, which he says aren’t in high demand by car thieves since the countries that typically receive stolen cars don’t have the most robust charging infrastructures. He keeps them parked in the garage, not on the driveway, and stores the key fobs in a Faraday pouch to block EMF signals and prevent key cloning.When he’s talking with colleagues about their own security measures—which he describes as “an active topic over the past few years—he also suggests installing trackers in cars (or even just dropping an AirTag into an unobtrusive spot)\ and designating one room in the house, typically an upper-floor bedroom, as a security room that can be locked and bolted from the inside, in case an intruder breaks in.“I think it’s important to not just say, ‘oh, well, I have insurance, so I should be fine.’ No, I think it’s a lot more than that. There’s a big psychological aspect of being violated.”Personal protection and work-related threatsIn addition to regular security concerns, health professionals can have a level of risk just because of their jobs. People with grudges, either personal ones due to the way they or a loved one was treated, or a more generalized one, such as lingering grievances for pandemic-related directives, can pose real harm. At work, keeping doctors or researchers safe is the responsibility of the hospital or clinic or university. But as soon as doctors leave the employers’ grounds, they’re on their own. According to Milano, it’s fairly easy for somebody to follow a doctor home.“Just be aware of your environment. Be aware of your surroundings. Be aware that a threat agent who has the intention of doing you harm, will target you at the outset from your hospital, from your clinic, from your place of work,” he said.If that does happen, he says it’s imperative to inform law enforcement about the situation.But no matter why a threat occurs or where it originates, if a healthcare professional feels insecure, they do have the option of turning to a security company for an assessment and support. It is something Milano says has been happening at Commissionnaires more frequently since the pandemic.A security company can offer an escalating range of services from installing basic equipment, such as alarms and monitoring systems, to discreet observing and reporting (using everything from drones to people in parked cars engaging in stakeouts), to embedding security personnel with the family on a 24/7 basis. He has only had to employ that last drastic measure twice since 2022: once for a geopolitical threat and once in a love-triangle situation.Beyond the physicalIn contrast, he says doctors are often victims of fraud. It’s especially common for them to be targeted by scammers from their own community groups trying to swindle money from them, often under the guise of a charitable donation to a worthy cause, and when it happens, they are typically too shy or reluctant to admit that they were deceived.“For most medical practitioners, their DNA is made to help people. They don’t have in their mind that they’re being abused or they’re being taken advantage of, so they will gladly help, but they have to be vigilant. It’s a different mindset, but they have to be aware that just because somebody is from their community that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s good for you,” he said.

Why doctors are upgrading their personal security

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