Ty Richmond and Travis Strawbridge from Allied Universal Event Services discuss the benefits of a risk-based approach for event security.

Thinking about risk

At the start of each year, excitement grows for upcoming music festivals, concerts, conventions, sporting events and other special events.

For the event security industry, the new year marks the beginning of a very busy season with often several events occurring simultaneously which requires detailed planning and evaluation of the risk landscape for each.

We are living in a world of evolving risk and every event has a unique security profile and varying levels of risk tolerance.

The security solutions needed to mitigate those risks are just as unique.

Yet traditional security practices often focus on singular threats and one-size-fits-all solutions.

To ensure successful event security strategies are implemented, a risk-based approach is more important than ever.

Three questions must be asked and answered by the event security team and the client when developing an effective event security plan:

1. What needs to be protected?
2. What does it need to be protected from?
3. How can it be effectively protected?

Risk-based approach to event security

A risk-based approach to event security starts with pre-planning and continues through post-show wrap-up.

It ensures that the security has a seat at the table during the entire process from start to finish.

Security management teams work closely with event leaders and organizers to ensure consistency and success from event to event, city to city and venue to venue.

Event security is more than just staffing security personnel, it includes comprehensive risk-based planning to navigate uncertainty to keep attendees and artists safe with rigorous planning to prevent, detect and respond to potential incidents.

Each venue is different and requires its own specific strategy and roadmap which can be complex and require extensive coordination, communication and advance planning with the venue’s facility management, event management and local law enforcement.

Advanced planning enables these teams to devise a best practices methodology that can be used to address a wide range of emergency scenarios.

Risk is a concern for every event.

It is important for leaders to recognize risk management as a foundation of operational success and implement strategies to address risk proactively.

Risks associated with employee wellbeing are often attributed to the lack of a strong safety culture and therefore a workplace safety program needs to be an integral component of the event planning overall approach to risk management.

The organization can begin to safely manage risk by ensuring that security leaders create a safety culture where they actively engage their team to communicate their safety vision and model safe practices.

It’s important to make time to communicate your safety commitment through regular meetings, written communications and safety events.

Open communication between leadership and employees establishes expectations, engagement and motivation – all essential to a safe event security workplace.

A security team’s event preparations begin by reviewing and analyzing a comprehensive master list of successful outcomes and lessons learned from previous events.

Everything from how many people required medical intervention, how much water was given out to attendees, to crowd management incidents and a review of potential assaults, thefts, etc. are examined for planning of upcoming events.

Continual training is critical

Security and event staff require comprehensive training for each specific event.

A series of preshow steps, including tabletop exercises, site walkthrough drills, security briefings before and after shifts, establishment of a clear and well-disseminated communication tree and agreed-upon show-stop triggers and responses are some of the elements of successful event protocol.

A wide range of training methods can be implemented including classroom and field training, hands-on simulation, tabletop exercises, workshops, virtual learning, certification and Guard Card courses, as well as a host of annual refresher classes.

Crowd control and emergency evacuation training

While event security professionals do not need a PhD in psychology, they do need a thorough understanding of crowd psychology.

Crowd psychology is the collective psychological mindset of a large group of generally like-minded individuals in the same general vicinity of each other.

In an organized crowd environment, many of the social barriers which exist in conventional behavior are ignored or lessened.

This stems largely from an individual’s identity being, in part, being “part of the crowd”.

For example, people who attend a concert have a shared and common interest with every other person at the event – enjoying the music and entertainment being performed by the artists.

Equipping security personnel with the knowledge, awareness and basic tactics to safely engage, monitor and move large crowds of people in a safe and effective manner is critically important.

This specific training prepares event security personnel to recognize different types of crowds and crowd behaviors.

There are several key elements to safe crowd management including:

• Understanding basic psychological phenomena which may arise among individuals and within crowds
• Knowing how to move large crowds in a safe and efficient manner
• Properly managing and directing crowds in emergency situations
• Safely evacuating a venue
• Knowing the individual facility layout and how it may affect and alter evacuation procedures

Event security personnel: your most valuable assets

Employees are the most valuable assets of any event security company.

It is vitally important for an event security firm to adhere to strict guidelines for hiring and training.

In addition, the event security’s management team should be coaches and mentors to all front-line employees.

Experienced, trained security professionals, who are licensed, and who have undergone background checks and drug testing, are the foundation of event security.

This is a dynamic sector which demands that security professionals engage in extensive training consistent with their assigned duties including First Aid and CPR, understanding the signs and symptom of heat stress, how to handle attendee slips, trips and falls, fire safety, violence and active shooter, emergency response and disaster planning as well as hazardous material awareness and best practices for arenas, stadiums, amphitheaters and open-air venues.

In addition, venue specific training is also important such as technical and guest services skills, line control, front of stage, back of house, ushers, roamers and overall venue security and safety.

Event security professionals should also have an open line of communication with their supervisors.

In most circumstances, a ten to one ratio of security professionals to supervisor is recommended to ensure continuous communication and to exceed expectations.

Without active participation by all members of an organization, an event safety program will not reach its full potential.

Employees feel valued when their ideas and suggestions are taken seriously.

They will better support safety policies, processes and programs when they are involved in developing them. It is important to engage and empower everyone when it comes to safety.

Event security high-tech screening

Event security professionals work with clients to design and implement screening solutions that best fit their environment, requirements and existing security operations.

Today’s security professional is a highly trained individual with access to innovative technologies that include artificial intelligence (AI)-powered applications that connect AI and human response to better protect people with accurate real-time data.

Ever-evolving technology

Successful event security strategies include a network of people, processes and technology, combined to deter and mitigate threats.

Powerful applications such as facial recognition video and related analytics are used to measure and gauge crowd behavior, suspicious package detection and instant alerts immediately notifying security and law enforcement so that preemptive action can be deployed.

In addition, social media platforms are monitored using specific key word analytics to assess if there are any potential issues that are happening.

Security professionals together with local, state and federal law enforcement are able to work together to leverage multiple technologies and share information to mitigate potential threats.

Ultimately, it is important to determine the policies and procedures that are in place that enable security personnel, law enforcement and other venue managers to effectively work together as a blended team.

About the authors

Ty L Richmond is President, Allied Universal Event Services and Travis Strawbridge is Director, Operational Improvement & Compliance for Allied Universal Event Services.

To learn more, contact Rachelle Loyear at [email protected].

This article was originally published in the March edition of Security Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.