What Is a Negligent Security Expert Witness?

2 min readBy Ryan Dahlstrom

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Ryan Dahlstrom

Experienced Hospitality Expert Witness · 35+ Years Industry Experience · Plaintiff & Defense

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When a crime occurs on a commercial property — a hotel, nightclub, parking garage, or shopping center — the property owner may be liable if inadequate security measures contributed to the harm. A negligent security expert witness evaluates whether the security measures in place were reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with industry standards.

What Is Negligent Security?

Negligent security is a premises liability theory that holds property owners and operators responsible for foreseeable criminal acts that occur on their property when they failed to implement reasonable security measures. Common scenarios include assaults in hotel parking lots, fights and shootings at nightclubs, altercations at bars and live events, and attacks in casino garages. The key legal question is whether the harm was foreseeable and whether the property owner took reasonable steps to prevent it.

The Expert's Role in Negligent Security Cases

A negligent security expert witness evaluates the adequacy of the security measures in place at the time of the incident. This includes reviewing: prior incident reports and crime statistics for the area, the property's security policies and staffing levels, the training and supervision of security personnel, lighting, surveillance systems, and access control measures, and industry standards for comparable properties. The expert then opines on whether the security measures met or fell below the applicable standard of care.

Hospitality Venues and Negligent Security

Bars, nightclubs, hotels, and entertainment venues face heightened negligent security exposure because they serve alcohol, operate late at night, and attract large crowds. Alcohol service, crowd density, and security staffing levels are recurring issues in these cases. An expert with direct hospitality operating experience can explain the operational realities of venue security that courts and juries need to understand.

Working With Ryan Dahlstrom

Ryan Dahlstrom brings more than 35 years of hands-on management of bars, nightclubs, hotels, and entertainment venues, including responsibility for venue security, and is a member of ASIS International. He evaluates security staffing, training, policies, and incident response against industry standards, and he explains both the security obligations and the operational constraints venue operators face, for plaintiff and defense counsel.

About the Author

Ryan Dahlstrom

Ryan Dahlstrom is a experienced hospitality expert witness with over 35 years of direct industry experience — managing and operating bars, nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, casinos and live entertainment venues before ever testifying about them. He has been retained by plaintiff and defense attorneys in dram shop, liquor liability, negligent security, and premises liability cases across the country.

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