High Risk, Low Security at Fast-Food Stands : Danger: Not much is done to protect customers and employees, experts say. Some firms refuse to guard the restaurants.

Open all day and night, accepting only cash, fast-food restaurants are easy targets for armed robbers seeking a quick hit.

Despite the frequency of fast-food robberies--several hundred last year in Los Angeles alone--law enforcement authorities and safety experts say that customers and employees get little in the way of security.

Monday’s hostage standoff at a McDonald’s in La Verne began with a suspect trying to escape a robbery rather than hold up the business, but the incident powerfully illustrates just how vulnerable fast-food restaurants can be.

“If (a robbery) happens while you’re inside one of these places, our advice is to stay alert and attentive to what the suspect is wearing and what kind of weapon he has,” Los Angeles Police Detective Jerry Lafrois said. “Otherwise, do what he says. If he wants you to burn the place down, burn it down.”

Lafrois also pointed out that “very, very few fast-food restaurants have security guards on the premises. Only a few more are monitored by time-lapse or video cameras.”

In fact, some security firms refuse to contract with fast-food establishments because of the risk they pose to guards and the potential liability the security company could face from anyone injured during crimes on the premises.

“We do not handle fast-food restaurants at all,” said Tom Reddin, former Los Angeles police chief and owner of Tom Reddin Security Services. “Our insurance company would blow its head off if they heard we took on a chain of fast-food restaurants.”

Beyond that, “A security guard carrying a weapon isn’t necessarily the best-trained person in the use of that weapon,” Reddin said. “If you’re in a restaurant with an armed security guard and shooting starts, dive for the floor.”

Argus Security, which provides guards for restaurants, including the bustling 24-hour Tommy’s Original World Famous Hamburgers downtown, is one of the handful that consider fast-food restaurants worth the risk.

“Most of our security guards are armed--they have to be because of the gangs,” said Anna Perkins, a spokeswoman for Argus. “We have drive-bys and customers who get mean if they don’t get their hamburgers fast enough.”

Indeed, a dispute over the slow delivery of food at a Compton taco stand in February led to a shoot-out during which an armed security guard and a suspected gang member were shot to death and a third person wounded.

Fast-food stands have been hit by violence ranging from robberies to a madman’s reign of terror:

* Twenty-two people were shot to death in a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro in 1984 by gunman James O. Huberty, who was killed by a police sniper.

* Three suspected robbers were killed and a fourth was wounded Feb. 12 by nine police officers who watched the men force their way into a closed McDonald’s in Sunland and rob its manager at gunpoint. After the robbers climbed into the getaway car, the officers fired 35 shots into the late-model Thunderbird.

* A 17-year-old Lynwood girl who hesitated to hand over her ring to an armed robber was killed in August while waiting in line at the drive-up window of a Taco Bell. It was one of three shootings in one week at fast-food restaurants in Compton, and prompted city officials to call for armed guards to patrol the parking lots.

Most of the violence and robberies of fast-food restaurants are “not confined to high crime rate areas,” Lafrois said.

“Robbers aren’t stupid--they know those restaurants in high-crime areas are so barred up they can’t be robbed,” Lafrois said. “Fast-food robberies are countywide.”

Attorney Carl A. McMahan, who specializes in personal-injury cases, said that when violence erupts in these businesses, security guards--rather than owners of the business--become primary legal targets in lawsuits seeking compensation for injuries.

“The duty of convenience-store owners depends upon the foreseeability of a crime occurring in their store with injury to a customer,” McMahan said. “But that duty would be less strong than that of a private security company contracted to assume that responsibility.”

Only the largest fast-food chains, such as Burger King and McDonald’s, can afford security programs. But these companies acknowledge that this security often provides more “customer comfort” than protection.

Among other things, chain restaurants are equipped with sophisticated alarm systems. Their managers are advised to keep less than $75 in their cash registers and to “eyeball customers.”

“Good managers eyeball every customer that comes in the door,” said the manager of a McDonald’s restaurant who asked that his name not be used. “Most robbers case a joint first. If they see a manager slacking off, they’ll do what they came to do.”

Added Burger King spokeswoman Cori Zwotow: “We have a security plan that we are constantly refining to protect our employees and our customers. We do our best, but every restaurant is vulnerable.”

BACKGROUND It is officially known in police circles as a “light and sound diversion device,” but for members of police special weapons teams around the country it is usually called a “flash-bang grenade.” The device, a five-inch-long cardboard cylinder filled with explosives, is designed to disorient a suspect with a deafening blast coupled with a bright flash of white light that can blind a suspect for several seconds. The device has been a standard tool in police arsenals and is most commonly used to break siege and hostage situations. The flash-bang is not designed to injure, but only to provide a powerful, momentary diversion.