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Media Contact
Company Name: Fast Guard Service LLC
Contact Person: Moise Louissaint
Email: moise@fastguardservice.com
Phone: 844-707-0574
Address:20264 NE 15 CT
City: Miami
State: Florida
Country: United States
Website: fastguardservice.com/
What can law enforcement do to help event planners identify and plan for the unexpected to prevent loss of life in a mass shooting?
| by Ronnie L. Garrett
In a world where mass shootings and copycat events prevail, music festival organizers, public officials, and law enforcement are currently grappling with how they might better protect event venues from mass killers.
But the reality—as the recent Las Vegas shooting at a Jason Aldean concert proved—is that no amount of planning and preparation is guaranteed to stop every lone wolf shooter.
In Vegas, Stephen Paddock executed an unprecedented attack—he opened fire on a country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, leaving 58 people dead, and wounding and injuring an estimated 546 more.
Attorney Steven Adelman, who focuses on event security, says it’s impossible to plan for an emergency that has never happened before. “There is no previous shooting like this one. It is literally unprecedented in the world of live events,” he says. “You would have to go back to 1963, with Lee Harvey Oswald up in the Dallas book depository, to get the nearest analogy to the Las Vegas shooting. There is no way that anyone could have planned for this—not the hotel, not the concert venue—because this has never happened before. No one plans for things that have never happened before. There is nothing before this event that would have clued in organizers of an outdoor festival that they should plan for a shooter across an enormously wide intersection, 32 stories up.”
Acts One, Two, and Three
Adelman dissects the event by likening it to a three-act play involving security, the venue, and the shooter himself.
Act One: The venue, in this case the Route 91 Festival property. “There is really no security enhancement that would have reduced the likelihood of people getting shot from across the strip because the shooter never came onto the concert property at all,” he says. “He didn’t even approach the security perimeter.”
He explains this event vastly differs from the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, FL, where Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 58 others. “In this incident, the shooters shot their way into the club,” he says. “But in Las Vegas, that didn’t happen at all, so the thing venue operators and promoters pay close attention to, which is the venue security perimeter, was never challenged; it was never even approached.”
Act Two: The shooter’s location, in this case the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. There are those who believe that if the hotel had had better security, its security officials might have been able to identify the shooter before he did anything. “He would have been identified, they say, as not just one of thousands of people going in and out of the venue, but as someone who was setting up to commit a crime,” he says.
However, Adelman points out that the subsequent investigation of this event has shown that Paddock took extreme measures to “make himself innocuous and disappear into the crowd.”
Greg Pearson, CEO of global risk consulting firm FocusPoint International, suggests in a Vice.com article that advanced technology could help concert security teams respond more quickly to an active shooter situation. He put forth that gunfire detection systems could have stopped the shooting in its tracks, while other experts suggested facial recognition systems might have identified Paddock as a threat long before he did anything.
“Yeah, maybe facial recognition software or some other wonderful bit of technology could identify someone [as a threat], but only if that person was already in the system,” says Adelman. “This shooter wasn’t. He wasn’t in anyone’s system. He wasn’t on anyone’s radar; not prior to him starting to rent hotel rooms near concert venues and not during the time he was getting set up on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay.”
Adelman adds, “This guy intended to fly below the radar, was a very careful planner, and successfully executed his plan to remain below the radar. There is nothing the hotel could have done to identify this guy because he looked, acted, and carried things just like everyone else. There was simply no reason for a security professional to come up to him and question him about what he was doing or what he was carrying.
“The major hotels on the Las Vegas strip set the gold standard for hotel security; they do security better than virtually anywhere else,” he continues. “So, as we can see, if someone is intent on passing beneath the radar of extraordinary security, they can do so.”
Act Three: The shooter, in this case, Paddock. Adelman says the question to ask is what turns a person, someone who looks ordinary and acts unobtrusively, into a shooter? There are no clear answers.
Adelman believes there is very little chance of a copycat following in Paddock’s footsteps. “I’m convinced that a copycat shooter is unlikely because this took a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of planning, and a lot of flying under the radar to execute,” he says. “That’s not a likely combination to reoccur.”
Because of this, Adelman says, “Though this was the worst mass shooting incident in U.S. history, it would be a mistake to radically change the resource allocation and emergency action plans that are already in place to prevent a future incident like this.”
Back to Basics
The question becomes then: What are the reasonably foreseeable threats that people should be paying attention to? To this Adelman answers, “The same stuff as before the Route 91 festival shooting.”
When planning security for any event, there needs to be a site-specific analysis based on geographic risks. What are the risks inherent at the event in question?
“One risk is the crowd demographics,” says Adelman. In a sporting event, for example, if there is a strong rivalry between two teams, police can make a reasonably confident assessment about the makeup of the crowd and the behaviors they might
expect.
“Not to engage in gross stereotyping, but these are useful rules of thumb,” says Adelman. “If it’s a country music show, your primary food and beverage concern is alcohol, and people getting drunk, unruly, engaging in fist fights, and driving under the influence after the event. But at an electronic dance festival, there might be much more worry about illicit drugs, so you might need to plan more for medical intervention in case of an overdose. Or, for example, when the San Francisco 49ers play the Arizona Cardinals, we know there’s an unusual number of fights between the fans of these two teams, so event security needs to plan for that.”
He adds, “These are the sorts of risk assessments that event planners and law enforcement have always done, and they should remain the risk assessments that are done now.”
Perimeter security is another area worthy of consideration. Event patrons now expect to have their bags checked before entering a venue, if they are even allowed to carry a bag in. They know that they will be wanded or asked to walk through a magnetometer for screening. “I think most people shrug these things off as the cost of living in the public in 2017,” Adelman says. “These basic protections of an event perimeter should not change because of the Las Vegas shooting; the security perimeter in this case was not breached.”
News reports suggest that this event could lead pre-event surveillance sweeps, hiring more off-duty undercover police officers to surveil event venues, and even taking over floors of the facility for security purposes. “The costs of this would be enormous,” Jason Porter, eastern region vice president for global private security firm Pinkerton, told Vice.com.
Adelman agrees, saying, “I’ve heard talk about how every outdoor show should do reconnaissance of tall buildings near the festival grounds so there isn’t a shooter with a good line of sight. Now that we know the threat, we would be foolish not to pay attention to it, but I don’t think it’s going to be a profitable line of investigation most of the time.”
He explains that at a large outdoor event that takes place across from a hospital, for example, completely locking down security is difficult at best. “The organizers of the event do not control the hospital, nor the occupants inside. It’s unlikely that they are going to be able to do much in terms of security there,” Adelman says. And the event may be held near “taller structures where conceivably someone could get in with weapons. Controlling that would be beyond the control of the ownership group and event organizers, and that is usually going to be the scenario. One controls their own property, not adjacent properties.”
News reports also called for putting snipers on the tops of taller buildings to take out a shooter if need be.
“I’m a realist,” says Adelman. “I don’t think it’s practical for most event organizers to consider these things. There are lots of big ideas going around, and none of them are bad ideas; they all should get some consideration because we don’t want this to happen again. But if we change much of what we do in response to something that in this case is literally unprecedented, then I think we will have reacted too much and created a new system that will then have to be fixed because it won’t be well suited to the ordinary risks that we know happen on a regular basis.”
Time is Not on Your Side
According to a New York Times article on the timeline for the mass shooting in Las Vegas, the shooting started at 10:05 p.m. and it ended by 10:22 p.m., after more than 900 rounds were shot into the crowd. Officers could not get to the 32nd floor easily as they first had to determine where the shots were coming from, then circumvent barriers Paddock had put into place.
The unfortunate reality is that these shootings take very little time, and in most cases, law enforcement is reacting to an event that will be over before there is time to respond. Consider the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech where in 11 minutes, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at the university, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before committing suicide. Police were on the scene within minutes, but by the time they gained entry to the building the event was over.
“Police couldn’t have done a better job,” says Phillip Chainman, staff director of the Virginia Tech Shooting Review Panel at the 9th Annual Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference and Exposition. “They made immediate entry. But it was game over by that time.”
Notes Adelman, police cannot get there quickly enough, and generally cannot prevent these tragedies. For this reason, he advocates law enforcement helping to teach event planners, organizers, and security personnel what to do when an event arises.
“The usual response that we are all taught is to run, hide, fight. If you can run away from the shooter, do it, because it’s by far the best choice,” Adelman says. “If you can’t run away, hide behind whatever is available, and if neither of these is an option, fight the shooter with whatever you have. Throw your coffee cup, your phone, a book. These are the rules; the problem is they are hard. There are many impediments to people running, hiding, or fighting, particularly in live event spaces.”
The first problem is that most people cannot identify gunfire. “They have never heard it live,” says Adelman. “Even people who go to a shooting range haven’t heard it without hearing protection. So, hearing live fire, close, is something most people have never heard in their lives. Therefore, you often hear from survivors of active shooter situations that they thought it was fireworks or pyrotechnics on the stage. This means people will have some delay in recognizing gunfire as a live threat.”
The second problem, as was the case in the Las Vegas shooting, is people are unable to identify where the shots are coming from. “Run, hide, fight is based on knowing where the shooting is coming from and knowing what direction to run,” he says. “But if people cannot figure out where the bullets are flying from, they don’t know where to go, and if they do, they are then faced with something new and very frightening. And most people in those situations freeze up and don’t do much of anything.”
In addition, event goers’ responses may be impaired by alcohol or drugs that affect or slow their decision-making process.
Here, law enforcement can help event organizers by teaching them what to do during an active shooting. This training should cover what an AR-15 sounds like by surprising them with recorded gunfire, says Adelman. “In the middle of my talks, I always play the AR-15 sound on automatic and semi-automatic,” he says. “I do it over and over to fix it into their brains.”
By training event organizers to recognize shots and where they come from, the casualties of such an event might be minimized. They will be able to quickly identify that a shooting is occurring and move people to safety.
Many event organizers also design apps to help people navigate and enjoy the festivities. These apps can also be equipped to deliver emergency messages to patrons, and Pearson says that these apps can notify people quickly about shots being fired and from where, and guide them to exit points.
“Event personnel need to be taught how to safely move people quickly and decisively toward a safe place. That’s ordinary crowd management. There is nothing active shooter-specific about it,” says Adelman. “But it’s really important. We need to teach the people working these events how to be shepherds, by first explaining to them how people react in emergencies, giving them active shooter training, and then teaching them how to get people to safety.”
Ronnie L. Garrett is a freelance writer based in Fort Atkinson, WI. She has written about law enforcement for 22 years, and has been writing about active shooter situations since the school shooting at Columbine in 1999.
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Student Events Create Challenges for Campus Security
This is an amazingly vibrant time of year at universities and colleges around the country – football games, concerts, parties – many of which take place outdoors and include very large groups of people. Although these events are typical on and near campuses, they pose an ever-increasing challenge for campus security in our current environment where gunfire incidents seem all too common.
Many campuses are spread over multiple city blocks, with students and staff dispersed throughout the community in residence halls, sorority and fraternity houses, academic buildings and administrative offices; in addition to the businesses that support campus life like bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. In today’s world, that means campus police are responsible for more than just the safety of the campus-proper, but also the community near campus where their students and staff live, work, and play.
In addition to managing the day-to-day campus security threats, Security Directors must now take a broader view and approach to ensuring that their campuses are secure and prepared for larger threats that could come their way.
We know that in any shooting situation, every minute matters and lives depend on fast action. ShotSpotter’s SecureCampus is a technology solution designed specifically to help campus police protect their greater on-and-off campus community. Our platform offers acoustic gunshot detection to provide critical information concerning gunfire within seconds to police. SecureCampus functions much like a fire alarm system for gunshots, alerting police nearly immediately while identifying the precise location of the shooting. This information can prove invaluable by helping law enforcement respond quickly and accurately.
It is not uncommon for SecureCampus to alert the police so quickly and accurately that they almost instantly arrive at the scene in time to help shooting victims receive life-saving medical attention. In fact, on a number of instances, the police arrived so quickly, witnesses and even suspects were still in the area, which ultimately led to arrests. Read our SecureCampus case study at a West Coast world-class universityhere.
With the many threats we face in today’s world, we still want people to know that it is a great time to enjoy all that our universities have to offer. The good news is that with some pre-planning and the right technology, schools can greatly enhance their campus security and put the focus back on those special events, not on the security risks they pose. Learn more about how SecureCampus can help your school or university at http://www.shotspotter.com/campus-security.
November 21, 2017
By: Damaune Journey, VP of Security Solutions, ShotSpotter
If you are wondering whether or not your business might need Fire Watch or Fire Protection Services, the first order of business is to properly define exactly what those services entail…
What Exactly is a Fire Watch?
In short, a Fire Watch is a provisional arrangement in which a person or person physically checks buildings and/or other property for extreme fire hazard situations. Fire Watches are normally conducted when the probabilities of a fire-related incident are high. For example, anytime that ‘hot work’ construction processes are taking place on-site (common ‘hot work’ processes are welding, soldering, flame-cutting, riveting and brazing). Another typical ‘high-probability’ example would be in the case of malfunctioning alarm and/or sprinkler systems.
What do Fire Watch Teams Do?
The duties of Fire Watch personnel may vary between jobs and location sites, but there are basic tasks that come with each position. In the course of their duties, Fire Watch personnel, (who are familiarized with the layout), will check all exits and fire extinguishers. They will have on their person, the materials necessary to execute a fast evacuation and to notify any other occupants in the event of a fire. In most cases, Fire Watch personnel would also carry a portable horn, a flashlight, a full all-access set of keys to the premises, writing materials and a copy of their specific duties.
When are Fire Watches Conducted?
Whether in 15-minute increments or on the hour, Fire Watch rounds are conducted on a regular basis and a log is kept recording each round. Accepted entries include the address of the facility, start and end times for the round, names of the Fire Watch personnel and entries for any communication that occurred between Fire Watch personnel and either the fire department or the Department of Public Safety. Fire Watch personnel should also wear (at all times) a clearly visible form of identification (such as a vest or hat). In many cases, Fire Watch personnel may work in concert with municipal or volunteer fire departments.
What Fire Watch Teams Don’t Do
The marching orders for a given Fire Watch team may vary from site to site (and from state to state) but most Fire Watch personnel are given clear instruction not to extinguish a fire unless it is clearly safe for them to do so, (or unless they have been expressly instructed or given permission to do so). In general, Fire Watch personnel should not attempt any tasks that could not be completed safely by the average citizen.
So Does My Business Need Fire Watch Service or Not?
Now that you know what Fire Watch Services California are, (whether you are a commercial real estate owner, a property manager or any other type of potential customer), if you’re still asking yourself whether or not you need Fire Watch Services, chances are you probably do.
As we have said, Fire Watch Security Guards are typically needed when a building either has a fire alarm that is down or a sprinkler system that is malfunctioning. We talked a little about ‘hot work’ as well, but other reasons might include a burglar alarm or an access control system that is malfunctioning, or in response to power outages related to a natural disaster. If you are still unsure whether or not you actually need Fire Watch Services, you can contact your local fire marshal. Give them a brief description of your scenario and ask if you should schedule a Fire Watch.
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Benefits of CCTV
For many people, intruder alarms offer the right level of protection they need. But for others, it’s CCTV that gives the security they’re looking for. Having a CCTV security system fitted to your property is like having a person watching over you every minute of the day.
CCTV installation is quick and simple, and the mere sight of a security camera acts as a visual deterrent that’s proven to make intruders, burglars and vandals think twice about approaching your property.
Home security cameras mean that threats to your home or your loved ones are always in view. From being able to see who’s at your front door to spotting possible intruders in alleys or bushes. A home surveillance camera offers a complete view of your property.
Enhancing home security
CCTV is a great way of enhancing your home security. Not only does it allow you to keep a watchful eye on your home and loved ones, but it acts as a visual deterrent to potential intruders thinking of entering your property.
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THORNTON, Colo. — Walmart is American as apple pie.
On Wednesday night, another American staple became the center of gun violence when police say a man walked into a Thornton store and randomly killed three people near a cash register.
Soft targets such as a Walmart have been under threat of random attacks for years. They have few exits and usually hundreds of people are inside.
“Walmarts have greeters but no armed guards,” said Grant Whitus, a security expert who was on a SWAT team that responded the day of the Columbine shooting.
“Any location where you have people close together is considered a soft target.”
“My belief is these places, these locations where you are going to have a lot of patrons should hire an armed guard to protect them.”
If there is a random shooting, Whitus advised running first and if necessary, fighting back.
But for this shooting, Chris Short said he had no time to run.
“I couldn’t run, I couldn’t run fast enough,” Short said.
While he hid under a nearby cash register and was scared, he said he was not surprised.
“The way things are going any more just seems like it’s being an everyday thing,” Short said.
WHEN attending a big event or watching it on TV, I always feel a slight sense of unease as my mind cannot come to terms with the fact that thousands of people are going to gather together, drink alcohol, in some cases, and will have to be kept in check by a smaller number of people.
Ring or pitch invasions, however benevolent, hammer home the point that spectators could erupt en masse, piling past the police and the other people charged with keeping the peace. It is an uneasy equilibrium.
In the modern world, we also have to contend with the lingering threat of terror. Not just from bomb-makers, either, as modern day terrorists can and have used cars, knives and other items to spread fear and do damage. It renders difficult security issues almost impossible, to the point where you just have to do what you can on your watch and hope that the measures put in place are enough.
Former British heavyweight contender Clifton Mitchell has been doing just that since launching his company Security Alert UK in 2002. The Managing Director, Mitchell and his team are a familiar, reassuring sight for boxing fans, but they faced their stiffest emotional and logistical test yet when working Kell Brook’s IBF welterweight title defence against America’s Errol Spence Jnr at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane football ground on May 27.
It was boxing’s first major event following the previous Monday’s bombing at the Manchester Arena, a popular boxing venue and one that is familiar to Mitchell’s team, which added an extra air of poignancy to a defining week, one that he feels they passed with flying colours.
“It was a week of paperwork, and a lot of people were involved, so I’m proud we have the quality of staff and the qualifications to do that,” he said when speaking to Boxing News about a testing time. “If we didn’t come up to scratch with our risk assessments the show wouldn’t have gone on.”
With that said, he handed it over to the people who work for him and with him to give the story behind the story that was Brook-Spence Jnr: “It was terrible as we have close links with Manchester Arena, we’ve done about 50 events there so know the staff and the management,” said Simon Roberts, Security Alert’s Operations Manager. “I was getting text messages throughout the night [of the bombing]. I didn’t sleep, none of us did, because we’ve got friends at that Arena. You feel terrible for people. Your first thoughts are with the families. Imagine sending your wife or daughter off to see a concert and getting a phone call telling you they are not coming back. You can’t imagine that pain.”
With Sheffield looming, Roberts knew what they had to do next. “It is all about stepping up, you’ve got a job to do,” he added. “You have to work hard, be professional and when you have a disgusting incident like we saw in Manchester you become more mindful about what’s around you: the people, the surroundings, the building, everything.”
Neal Harding is their Boxing Security Manager. He outlined the logistical challenges they faced throughout that crucial week. “We drove from London to Sheffield on Tuesday morning,” he recalled. “From Tuesday through to Friday we were in five- and six-hour meetings with the South Yorkshire Police,
so it was pretty intense.
“[They were] very helpful, very open. They took on board what we had to say, as we are experts about boxing shows security-wise and they weren’t. They said: ‘Look, you know what you are doing’. We’d planned for the event, but we hadn’t planned for such a big operation – that Monday night changed it all for us.
“We sat down with the top counter terrorism officer for the north of the country, who told us that this event was now their number one priority. That brought it all into focus for everyone, made them realise how important it is. We had really good communication between us, the stadium and the police, so the relationships we built up in the weeks before it really did help.”
Another man who knew the importance of the event was Frank Smith. Matchroom’s Head of Boxing takes the issue of security extremely seriously and adopts a hands-on approach, walking around the outside of the stadium with Roberts and Harding on fight night as they did their final checks.
“Every show we do has a higher security presence than most events you would go to,” stated Smith. “I control it with the assistance of Simon and Neal from SAUK, so I’ll lead the meetings at our end and speak with specialists in that area, such as experts in crowd safety. We like to have that high police presence as it gives people assurance when they arrive at an event.
“A lot of the time, it is down to the venues to handle the liaison with the police, as they do that week in and week out, but Bramall Lane had never had a boxing event in recent times. They knew it was our speciality and that we understand the audience.
“It was all about the number of police needed to run the event safely. It wasn’t that we didn’t want the event to not go ahead, we just wanted it to happen safely. Postponement-wise, we always worked on the assumption that this event was going to happen. There were some worrying times due to the climate in the country – the threat level went up to critical – so that came into our planning. You just don’t know what is going to happen in this day and age so we treat it the same whether we have a thousand or 90,000 people.”
With time ticking by, there were initial concerns that the show might have had to be cancelled. Fans in attendance on the night did not know just how uncertain things had been earlier in the week.
“Sheffield was 50-50 at one point, we ended up going from 75-80 staff to 150 in the space of days because we wanted to make the stadium really secure by having more people,” revealed Roberts.
The British Boxing Board of Control’s Robert Smith was also involved. He worked closely with all parties to make sure that he could sign off from the Board’s side of things. “In Sheffield, I went to three meetings along with Frank because of the terrible incidents of the previous weekend,” he said. “Every time a new venue is used, we do an assessment of it along with the promoter to make sure we satisfied with regards to things such as security. The police are in charge on an event like that, you have discussions, but they will tell you what will happen. Happily, everyone agreed on what was put forward. There was a number of armed officers and sniffer dogs, which was unusual.
“The issue that weekend was that there was a lot of activity around the country – we had the FA Cup final and other events – and the police resources were heavily used. You would usually pull in people from different areas, they were all busy, so it was a challenging weekend.”
Following the SAG (Safety Advisory Group) meeting on the Friday, where all the parties detail their plans, it was left to Smith, on behalf of Matchroom and the football club’s safety officer, to confirm that they were happy to proceed with the event. Promoter Eddie Hearn also played a part via Twitter by asking fans in attendance to leave their bags at home in a bid to expedite security checks, a ploy that worked out well for all involved.
Boxing crowds are generally well behaved, but there’s always the people swaggering around venues reeking of testosterone and forgetting that the fighting should be confined to the ring. Plus fight nights are not as straightforward as football matches when it comes to crowd control.
“The difference between football and boxing, and which we discussed in the meeting, is that in football you have two sets of supporters – a large home contingent of home supporters and a smaller contingent of away – but in boxing you have supporters supporting different boxers, so that issue was raised,” revealed Robert Smith.
Clifton’s team usually deals with inner-ringside, the fighters and VIPs, yet they were given special dispensation to help out in the stands for Sheffield. It allowed them to quickly stamp out the night’s only sign of trouble.
“When it comes to boxing, two men trying to hurt each other, you have lads who may have had a drink and have local rivalries so you can get it [trouble] in the stands,” added Roberts.
“At Sheffield, we had one incident with about 40 guys, so we sent some of our lads in and didn’t have any more trouble that night. It made a statement to everyone else. In the end, Sheffield was one of the safest, most trouble-free events we’ve ever had.”
However, Roberts added that it had been a physically and emotionally draining week, one that had underlined once again the importance, and danger, of what he does for a living. “It was a poignant moment [leaving for the show], I gave Jordan [his wife] an extra kiss in the morning, you give your dogs a bit of fuss and talk to people a bit more than you usually would.
“It does flash through your mind sometimes that you may not be coming home to them, but if you fold to that pressure you let these people win. People didn’t see it, but it was 2am most nights before Frank, Neal and my lot finished work. It wasn’t a case of doing the weigh-in then having a knees-up, we were still doing paperwork in the early hours of Wednesday to get the event on before we got the nod on the Thursday afternoon.
“For Neal, myself and a few of the lads it got to 1.30am on the Sunday morning, and we’re still there waiting for Spence Jr. and his team to come out. They’re feeling good, as you would do after a big win, and when that was done you feel the relief come up: your shoulders drop, the job is done and you have a few fist bumps.”
We live in turbulent times, and with boxing’s profile higher now than it has been in recent years, there is always a risk that an event could be targeted. “The way things are at the present time in the country and the world we are going to have to live with it,” was Robert Smith’s final take on the issue.
His namesake, Frank, concurred, saying: “Unfortunately, in the day and age we are in, there is no method to the madness behind these tragic events – we saw that in London as well – so you can only put things in place to put it off as much as possible. That’s what we will continue to do.
“The measures have to always be in place so we can have a safe event for the people who come to the shows.”
NEW YORK Horrific events like Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas—which left nearly 60 attendees at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival dead and hundreds of others injured—are the stuff of an event professional’s nightmares. While such incidents have become more frequent, the safety and security of event attendees sometimes is taken for granted.
Security expert Todd Madison has suggestions for changing that. The former Secret Service agent knows about guarding against danger; he served as special agent in charge of protecting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her presidential run last year.
Now associate managing director of the private client services practice at K2 Intelligence, a security firm where former N.Y.P.D. Commissioner Ray Kelly is vice chairman, Madison spoke with BizBash about how planners can keep their events incident-free yet comfortable for guests.
Is what happened in Las Vegas an event security issue, or is it beyond that?
There always are risks in our everyday lives, but people shouldn’t take this as a reason not to do anything. They just have to prepare to communicate with each other.
Do planners have to include these worst-case scenarios when planning an event? Is that the new normal?
That should be continual in managing events. You always need an emergency action plan, not just in cases like this, but look at medical situations, or environmental issues like if someone smells gas or there’s a fire. As an event organizer you want to be able to tell people what to do and where to go. You can control the situation, but if you expect to just wave a wand and for things to be fine, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
What would you tell event organizers to look for—and to ask of—their venues, both for indoor and outdoor events?
Open the lines of communication prior to an event and engage with the event management team at the facility. Speak with the in-house staff about emergency plans and preparedness, which can be communicated back to the event planner’s people.
Ask questions about how to manage people entering the event. Also, create a check-in table for invited guests and have it away from the main entrance; distance is your friend. If you allow unknowns to get close to the event, you’re putting guests in a vulnerable situation. You want to be aware of other access points and be sure the venue can provide security. If not, seek out a security consulting company that’s well versed in issues that might arise, security protocols, concerns in the area, etc. They can detect nefarious activity, which gives you a road to success.
What are some fixes to problems that may arise which event planners can make before an event starts?
You need staff to walk up and down the line to get in, talking to people and making sure everyone is orderly. Then, that person needs a way to communicate, like a walkie-talkie, and if someone’s acting odd, the staff member or volunteer needs to know procedures for what to do next.
Also, connect with local and federal law enforcement officials so that they know about your event and if there is something to watch out for, like a controversial speaker or attendee, they are prepared. And if the police or others have information about a hate crime happening in the area, then they can plan for providing security to your event in a certain way.
But what’s the balance between having visible security, like guards or metal detectors, and scaring guests or placing an undue burden on them?
Think of a dart board, starting with the outside: the training during the countdown to a meeting, when things are being delivered and everyone is involved, that’s the first part of the process and it’s a relaxed time to monitor what’s going on. Then while on site, there needs to be vigilance, but you don’t have to tackle someone if something is wrong. It’s a matter of seeing something and saying something to the command center, or the inner ring.
What would you advise event planners tell potential event attendees regarding event security concerns?
Provide them with information and look for ways to make them comfortable. If you want to put security in place, make sure guests are fine with it. Put in layers of security that aren’t so noticeable and try to make the monitoring of activity as seamless as possible. You want to prepare guests so there are no surprises, but there’s no reason to scare them. Event and venue staff and law enforcement officers are the ones who’ll look out for the actual plan, where the exits are, etc. You want to take that concern away and have guests enjoy the event.
Recent terror attacks are stark reminders that the event and tourism industry needs to tighten security considerably when it comes to public access.
Since the awful events witnessed in Manchester and London, the U.K. has seen an increase in armed police on guard across the country, with hotpots being airports, train, bus and tube stations, as well as events and venues both large and small. And while this rise in police presence might go some way to deter individuals from carrying out random attacks, the reality is that it will do nothing to prevent the fatal and lasting damage that these attacks can have.
The same can be said for security at events; since the increase in terror attacks, there have been limited entry points, more stringent bag and personal security checks, and, in some venues, the size of bags that can enter arenas has been restricted.
For example, at the SSE Hydro and Armadillo venues in Scotland, only bags up to 35-by-40-cm will be permitted, and larger bags will be searched again before being checked into a cloakroom. Other security strategies across the globe include introducing metal detectors at entry points and search dogs to monitor queues. Of course, being extra-vigilant plays a critical role in keeping attendees safe, it’s crucial that security and event staff are educated to be able to spot the signs that indicate suspicious behavior.
While British intelligence is regarded as some of the best in the world, the issue that venues and event organizers are now facing is the “lone wolf” attack, which we have seen increasingly. Although intelligence agents are closely monitoring terrorist networks, these individuals are often not integrated into them. And since many messaging apps have now introduced end-to-end encryption, these kinds of attacks are becoming harder to anticipate. This means the sad fact is event organizers must plan for every eventuality.
Another problem that we are facing from a security aspect, is the way that attacks are changing and, simply put, previous security methods and products are not adequate. Event security has a legacy of preventing individuals and weapons from entering the space. But now, perpetrators are either not attempting to enter the space (they are waiting for people to exit) or they are targeting those who simply happen to be around the space.
We should now be focusing our efforts on protecting the perimeter at events and venues from hostile attacks. We are currently facing a growing trend in vehicles being used to inflict maximum harm, with seven incidents occurring in Europe alone in the last twelve months. Terror groups are actively encouraging supporters to use cars as weapons and even provide instructions on how to cause the most amount of damage.
After the London Bridge attack in June, London metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick declared that vehicle barriers were to be installed across London. However, so far, this has been in the form of concrete blocks that, when tested, were found to do little to prevent attacks of certain speeds and vehicles, proving that they are not successful method to protect lives in such instances.
Luckily, perimeter security is an area that is seeing a huge amount of growth and development. Although my company has an extensive history in military protection, we needed to create a product that was suitable for protecting the public from the new wave of attacks in urban environments. Our Terrablock event security barriers can withstand impact from a vehicle travelling at 50 mph by using a patented energy-displacement technology, protecting attendees from both hostile attacks and intruders.
Unfortunately, new attacks are presenting themselves every day, as we move forward in this new era, event organizers and venues must strive to be proactive in minimizing damage, rather than reactionary when it comes to the new wave of hostile attacks the world is experiencing. We have reached our limit when it comes to the old British adage of “keep calm and carry on.”
Now is the time to embrace the innovative security solutions that are being produced–you cannot put a price on public safety.
Adam Wilding-Webb is the high-security product director at Hesco. He is based in Leeds, England.
Las Vegas Police say at least 50 people were killed and more than 400 were wounded when at least one gunman opened fire on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard.
The shooter, identified by NBC News as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, was firing from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel at the festival. Officers responded to that hotel room and engaged the suspect, killing him. They do not believe at this time that there were any other shooters, despite reports of multiple gunmen. Police said they do not have an accurate number of victims yet. Police have not yet released a motive, but said they do not believe it is terrorism “at this point.”
The concert festival was taking place in an outdoor area across from the Mandalay Bay and Luxor casinos. A video taken by someone at the concert shows the moment when gunfire erupted, with several shots fired in rapid succession:
Photos and videos from the concert festival also showed multiple victims, including people on the ground, bleeding. The shooting was first reported about 10 p.m. local time. The scene remained active at 1 a.m. and people were being told to stay away. Las Vegas Police said it is an “active investigation.”
Active shooters at Mandalay Bay/Route 91 with automatic weapons & people down. Stay away from the Vegas strip! pic.twitter.com/81D6GEEInu
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman tweeted, “Pray for Las Vegas. Thank you to all our first responders out there now.”
The victims have not been identified. They include two police officers who were on duty and were shot, police said. One is in critical condition. Other police officers who were off duty were shot and killed at the concert, Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.
This is a developing story. Here is what we know so far:
1. The Gunman Has Been Identified as a ‘Local Individual’ & Police Are Searching for a Woman Associated With Him
At least one suspect was reported to be “down” inside a room at the Mandalay Bay, police said. Police said the shooter is a “local individual” who was firing from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel just outside the concert area. He was killed inside the hotel room after a police SWAT team used an explosive breach to blow open the door and then engaged with him.
Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, has lived on Babbling Brook Court in Mesquite, Nevada, since June 2016. He previously lived in Reno, Nevada, from 2011 to 2016, and also had an address in Melbourne, Florida, from 2013 to 2015. He has also lived in Henderson, Nevada, and several locations in California since 1990.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo, when asked by a reporter if it was an “act of terrorism,” said “no, not at this point. We believe it was a local individual. He resides here locally. I’m not at liberty to give you his place of residence yet, because it’s an ongoing investigation, we don’t know what his belief system was at this time. … Right now we believe he is the sole aggressor at this point and the scene is static.”
Police werealso looking for a “person of interest,” a 4’11” Asian woman named Marilou Danley. She was described as a “companion” of the shooter. A photo of her can be seen below:
Police said Danley, 62, lived with the shooter in Mesquite. Public records show she lived at the same address as him since January 2017. CNN reports that she has been cleared of any involvement. Police have also not said if she was seen with the suspect at the Mandalay Bay hotel or elsewhere prior to the shooting, as some reports have indicated.
“Marilou Danley is no longer being sought out as a person of interest,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told CNN. “LVMPD detectives have made contact with her and do not believe she is involved with the shooting on the strip.”
Marilou Danley’s Facebook profile reads, “Proud mom and grandma who lives life to the fullest.” Her last public post was an update of her profile picture in August. She had posted numerous photos of herself. Friends commented on her looks, and she wrote under one, “Thanks …That was taken at Wiltshire Roof Top Restaurant in L.A.” In 2016, she wrote in the comment thread under a photo, “…Kuha Sa Jumeira Beach, Dubai.”
She says on her Linkedin profile that she has worked at a casino in the past. She has also lived in Sparks and Reno, Nevada, along with Canton, Ohio; Springdale, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee, according to public records.
Earlier scanner traffic indicated that police may have gotten Danley’s name, at least in part, from a credit/debit card left in the Mandalay Bay hotel room by the main suspect.
“We have not located her at this time and we are interested in talking to her for followup,” Lombardo said at a press conference. Police are also looking for two vehicles with Nevada plates, a Hyundai Tucson with license plate number 114B40 and a Chrysler Pacifica Touring with plate number 19D401. They are registered to the gunman.
Officers were obtaining warrants to search the home where the gunman lived. Police said the person of interest lived with him.
Terrifying.
Woman celebrating 21st birthday was in front row. Says another woman came during show & told everyone they were going to die. pic.twitter.com/kwe00GMmqR
A woman who was at the concert told a local news station that a “lady pushed her way forward in the concert venue. And she started messing with another lady and told us that we are all going to die tonight. … It was about 45 minutes the shots were actually fired. But then she was escorted out by security.”
Lombardo said “We are comfortable that the primary aggressor in this event has expired or passed away and is no longer a threat.”
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Stephen Paddock: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
2. Country Singer Jason Aldean Raced Off Stage as Gunshots Rang Out During the Route 91 Concert Festival
About 40,000 fans were in the fairgrounds area, where there were multiple stages and other areas set up for the festival, according to The Associated Press. Concertgoer Kodiak Yazzi, 36, told the AP that the music stopped temporarily after a sound that was like a firecracker. It then started up again before another round of pops sent performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage, while panicked fans also rushed for the exits. Yazzi told the AP he took cover and saw flashes of light coming from the Mandalay Bay hotel tower above the concert. He said the bursts would start and stop for about five minutes.
The concert festival was in its third day. The festival’s website showed that performers Sunday night included Jake Owen and Luke Combs, along with Jason Aldean, who was set to take the stage about 9:40 p.m. ABC News reports that Aldean was on stage when the shooting occurred, but is OK. A video shows Aldean singing and playing a guitar as gunshots ring out. He briefly continues to perform, before stopping and running off the stage. You can watch the video below:
Aldean said on Instagram, “Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still dont know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate.”
Country singer Jake Owen was among those at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. He tweeted, “Gun shots!!! Vegas. Pray to god. Love you guys. Love you Pearl.”
Praying for everyone here in Vegas. I witnessed the most unimaginable event tonight. We are okay. Others arent. Please pray.
Owen later tweeted, “Praying for everyone here in Vegas. I witnessed the most unimaginable event tonight. We are okay. Others arent. Please pray.”
Another musician, Luke Combs, tweeted there was an active shooter at Route 91 Harvest, a three-day country music festival being held on the Las Vegas Strip.
Active shooter at @Route91Harvest in Vegas. We're safe. Love you guys.
“Active shooter at @Route91Harvest in Vegas. We’re safe. Love you guys,” Combs said.
You can watch live coverage of the shooting here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_HTCLhEJGo
University Medical Center spokeswoman Danita Cohen told The Associated Press that 26 people were taken to that hospital. Two have since died and 12 are in critical condition, Cohen said. It is not clear how many other victims were taken to other hospitals.
Dan Bilzerian, running from shooter at concert near Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, says “a girl just got shot in the f*cking head.” pic.twitter.com/FaS0VfeF7I
Dan Bilzerian, the professional poker player and businessman, posted a video running from the concert saying, “a girl just got shot in the f*cking head.”
Mandalay Bay issued a statement about the shooting:
Our thoughts & prayers are with the victims of last night's tragic events. We’re grateful for the immediate actions of our first responders. pic.twitter.com/Arf8edj1iZ
“Clip after clip after clip, bullets flying everywhere, people running,” the witness said. “It was really, really bad. We were the furthest VIP stages away from Mandalay Bay and they (the bullets) were ricocheting everywhere where we fear. They were firing from somewhere high and they were unloading clip after clip after clip. Multiple shooters, has to be.”
But police are indicating there was only one shooter. In chaotic active shooter situations, witnesses often report hearing or seeing multiple shooters, as sounds echo and come from different directions, and police and others are misidentified as gunmen.
Two girls who were front row at the concert -saw shooting begin – saw woman with what they say was a hole in head/not moving. #LVshootingpic.twitter.com/3NVDWEPYgf
Two women who were in the front row of the concert told Fox News’ Lauren Blanchard they heard the shooting start and saw a woman with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. She was not moving, they said. “We were at the Jason Aldean concert and everything was fine. And then we heard two pop noises and thought it was the sound system. He kept continuing like nothing was wrong and then we heard it continue and he was still going and then he fell,” one of the women said. The other woman told Blanchard, “(Aldean) dropped and ran, he just ran off the stage. And then people started dropping to the floor and we were running out.”
Another witness told ABC News, “Jason Aldean was playing and it just kind of sounded like some fireworks going off, and then I think there was the first kind of volley and then the second volley, and my buddy says ‘I got hit.’ … He got hit three times and people started diving to the ground. It was pretty much chaotic. Lots of people got hit.” The witness said his friend, who was shot three times in the chest, is going to be OK. He said another victim he was trying to help get to the hospital died in his arms.
ABC NEWS: Las Vegas shooting witness says "we watched these people getting gunned down…the air just reeked of gunpowder." pic.twitter.com/gyrTR2OwJZ
Witness Jake Freeman told ABC News he went to the rooftop lounge at the top of his hotel, overlooking the strip. “There were people drinking. Nobody had any idea what was going on. And I had a birds-eye view of the Route 91 Harvest music festival right across the street. My friend and I personally saw crowds of people running out of the festival and bodies hitting the ground. We absolutely watched these people getting gunned down from the shooter on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay. We couldn’t see the Mandalay Bay at all, the Mandalay Bay was behind us. … We did realize that they were being shots. We could hear the gunshots, coupled with what we heard, machine gun fire downstairs, we knew that it was an active shooter situation. We actually went down to the lobby to see if we could find out more.” He said when the elevator doors opened to the lobby, “the air just reeked of gunpowder. Crowds of people were running to the elevators trying to escape.”
Videos taken by concertgoers at the festival show people screaming and running as multiple gunshots can be heard. A witness says it sounded like a “machine gun.” In the video one person can be heard yelling, “get down,” while another shouts, “stay down” as shots ring out.
Police said in the initial radio dispatches that shots were fired and it sounded like it was coming from an “automatic” weapon. “We have an active shooter inside the fairgrounds,” the officer said:
See more photos and videos from the shooting here:
Read More From Heavy
Mandalay Bay Mass Shooting in Las Vegas: VIDEO & PHOTOS
4. Mandalay Bay Was Being Evacuated & Other Hotel Casinos in the Area Were Being Put on Lockdown
No official word from police but scanner traffic indicates a shooter at Mandalay Bay. Casino looks empty from as close as I could get. pic.twitter.com/4ocKgy2y13
Other hotels were also being shut down with guests barricading themselves inside rooms, according to social media reports. Officers, including several SWAT units, were searching the hotels and responding to multiple calls of reported shooters that turned out to be false, according to scanner reports.
“There has been multiple, multiple phone calls and accusations, or conjecture coming through social media that there are multiple shooters at other resorts, that has been proven to be false,” Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. “Additionally there has been accusations or beliefs there is some explosives going off. That is also fault. The only explosive in this event was from our SWAT team breaching the room.”
Those who are in lock down at casinos and other locations along the strip are being asked to stay where they are.
“I still want them to shelter in place,” Lombardo said. “They will be contacted by first responders and they will advise them when they are free to go. It is better to shelter in place than to be unaware.”
5. There Are Multiple Scenes & Police Say Possible Hoax Calls Were Being Made to Report Shots Fired at Other Locations
According to police, there are multiple shooting scenes on the Las Vegas Boulevard in the area of the Mandalay Bay casino. Police were investigating at least three locations, according to scanner reports. Multiple calls were being made reporting shots fired at several other locations in the hour after the initial calls, but people there, including police officers, were not hearing the shots. Officers believe the calls were possibly being made as a diversion.
Police were also investigating an SUV with a possible suspicious device inside on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Flights at the Las Vegas airport were being held as a precaution.
Police investigating reported shootings on Las Vegas Strip near @LASairport. Flight activity will be affected this evening; expect delays.
Police added, “Please avoid heading to the south end of the (Las Vegas) Strip. Las Vegas (Boulevard) is shut down at Tropicana, southbound past Russell (Road) at this time. … I15 Freeway is closed to traffic at this time from Tropicana to Russel Road. Again, please avoid the area.”
The FBI and ATF are also at the scene, according to reports. But they have not taken over the investigation at this time, ABC News reports.
Police have asked anyone with cell phone or other videos from the shooting to provide them to investigators. “Anybody that may have cell phone video or any type of video associated with this event that would be a benefit to the investigation, please respond to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters at 400 South Martin Luther King and we will take custody of that video. Please bring that down to the headquarters.”
Family members can go to a “family retreat area” to help locate loved ones at the headquarters. Increased security services have also been put in place.
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