McDonald's is confident its security policies are appropriate, but it will conduct an internal review of security arrangements at its central Dunedin restaurant after the death of man who was punched there at the weekend.
Steve Radnoty (51), of Dunedin, died in Dunedin Hospital on Saturday night after an incident at the George St restaurant at 4.45am on Saturday.
The review also follows a complaint from two Dunedin women who warned the manager security arrangements needed to be improved after they saw scenes inside the restaurant early on February 20 that they described as "carnage".
Cindy King said she had urged the restaurant to hire more security staff, or, in her opinion, "someone would get killed".
Her friend Debbie Mitchell, who has worked in the security industry for 17 years, said what they saw was "diabolical".
"You couldn't even see the floor, it was so covered in food. People were throwing food and spitting at each other and on the ground. Someone had the fire hose out, people were abusing and niggling at each other, and the only two security guards were behind the counter."
Asked why, the guards said they had to protect staff from people trying to get over the counter, Ms Mitchell said.
"There was a couple of hundred people in there and two security guards. They couldn't protect the staff and control and protect customers at the same time."
Ms King described the restaurant as an "absolute disaster zone, full of drunk lads, and girls too".
After about an hour, police visited the restaurant, and she contacted the restaurant's duty manager the morning after.
"I told her [the manager] the restaurant was an extremely vulnerable, dangerous place that night and the owners needed to get more security guards and more control. I said other restaurants and bars wouldn't let you in if you were that drunk."
Franchise owner Paul Steiner said that, in 25 years of working at McDonald's, he had never experienced anything like Mr Radnoty's death and it had devastated him, staff and management, some of whom were receiving counselling as a result.
"I can't even begin to think how [the Radnoty] family is feeling."
He said he was sorry Ms King and Ms Mitchell had not had a good experience and conceded that correct security procedures had not been followed that night by the guards or management.
Since then, managers, staff and guards had been fully re-briefed about security requirements and McDonald's Dunedin was auditing its procedures to ensure they met current requirements.
He was confident McDonald's security policies and procedures were sound, and that the policy of having two security staff - one at the front entrance and one at the back of the queuing area - on busy nights, and three guards working on nights an event was on, was appropriate.
If any disorder broke out, staff were to call the police. They could also call in "floating" security guards when required.
He said security should remove people behaving badly and prevent grossly intoxicated people entering, but it was often difficult to gauge intoxication.
He noted that regardless of how vigilant McDonald's was, there was still a culture issue [with violence] in Dunedin that needed to be addressed.
"As a society, we have a real problem. It [violence] is getting endemic in our society, and it's not the students either."
Dunedin police said they were generally happy with the restaurant's security arrangements.
Dunedin-Clutha police area emergency response manager Inspector Alistair Dickie said police checked the restaurant regularly at weekends and were often called there, as they expected to be, to help deal with disorder.
McDonald's generally handled disorder well, but, he noted, disorder in situations that involved people affected by alcohol could sometimes be spontaneous and was particularly difficult to predict or control.
Police liaised frequently with McDonald's and the Dunedin City Council about behaviour in that area at night, and McDonald's had been co-operative with requests from both.
