Special Event Nightmares

Sept. 22, 2014
Special events, and their required extra coverage, are inevitable so you might as well have a plan.

Often and inevitably during a public meeting, a group with good intentions announces its’ desires to host a special event in your town. Good folks wanting to do good for their cause with no earthly idea about what they are embarking on.  Every chief or sheriff has had this scenario unfold right before their eyes without warning and it lands in their laps.  This feel good group reveals that they desire the municipalities’ support for this fund raiser; great idea and what could possibly go wrong with this? Before you answer, if you respond with the in-depth questions of them during public forum it will be your political suicide. Thusly, your headache now begins with the uninitiated folks wanting to do well without any heavy lifting on their part.  

This scenario unfolds across the nation probably every day. How you handle it will differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but the basic concepts are the same. The police chief or command staff will have to sit them down later and break the news to them. I refer to this as “reality orientation” for the good old days of just throwing an event is over with. If your department has an emergency manager or this is tasked to the fire department, great you are home free. However, most of us catch this assignment from time to time, so here are a few pointers to help you. If you have to use the article to validate your position, let them hate me instead of you.

When someone goes off into planned event incident management they must entertain what are referred to as “The Three L’s”. Is what you are planning to do Legal? In your contingency plan and event footprint of the project, what and where are the Liabilities to plan for? Finally, the fact of life is nothing happens without Logistics. I will expand on these three, but these are the three heavyweights that most try to blush over, for it is such a great idea who would try to stop it? No event is so great that you cannot review these elements.

First is the legal end of this matter. Who is the organization and what is their legal standing in the matter? Are they a fledgling group to help a local issue or are they aligned with a larger regional to national organization? If there is any money handling. Are they a 5013c Non-profit or underneath some other groups legal and tax umbrella. Money sounds simple but gets convoluted rapidly when taxes and legal donations are involved. Permits or licenses may be required for blocking streets, loud speaker permits, who is going apply for these. Does this group understand the process for applying for permits, and is there a time table such as going before city council to seek approval. Do they have event insurance for themselves and participants, and furthermore can they obtain additional insurance naming your municipality as an additional insured in this event. You must protect your house as well.

It is all fun and games until somebody gets hurt and then everybody gets sued, so enters Liability into the conversation.  Most of the public never considers what goes into running a large public event. The very things that we take stock in for providing a safe venue for all, they remain clueless. Something as simple as trip and fall prevention can require safety planning and inspections. A huge concern is the severe weather and sheltering plans for outdoor events. This was brought forefront at the 2011 Indiana State Fair concert stage collapse.

This brings us to logistics. Without logistical planning absolutely nothing is going to happen, I repeat nothing.  Overall event planning can range from creature comfort and sanitation (the number of portable toilets and hand washing stations per thousand attendees) to electrical inspections, event parking and traffic control. Medical plans are required and staffing for all emergency service disciplines will be required. With all of these there is a cost. When most citizens/groups approach a town with this great idea, police, fire and EMS just are not voluntold to do this. (Voluntold is a military term for being pressured into volunteering without compensation) Wrong, someone has to pay or budget for the budget impacts. There are contracts, wages and backfills of staffing to be dealt with. Whose budget is covering this will be whispered. We all know that everything has a cost element attached to it. If people are naïve enough to believe that the logistic fairies will magically appear to make everything fall into place, you will need more help.

Event management is a complex skill set that is a fine art and a highly sought after trait. Some have a knack for this and some will never seem to get it for it is study in multi-tasking at its finest.  I would recommend that you have a blank incident action plan (IAP) with most of the generic locality centric information prefilled in to start as a canvas. Face it, we all get dragged into this so at one time or the other. Yes, there are times we will have to do the heavy lifting to assist some group or your town.  Your job is to protect your municipality and attendees from harm’s way. I do recommend that you train your upcoming staff in these arts for the institutional knowledge that you develop performing this must be passed on and to those who will fill your shoes.

Sponsored Recommendations

Whitepaper: A New Paradigm in Digital Investigations

July 28, 2023
Modernize your agency’s approach to get ahead of the digital evidence challenge

A New Paradigm in Digital Investigations

June 6, 2023
Modernize your agency’s approach to get ahead of the digital evidence challenge.

Listen to Real-Time Emergency 911 Calls in the Field

Feb. 8, 2023
Discover advanced technology that allows officers in the field to listen to emergency calls from their vehicles in real time and immediately identify the precise location of the...

2022 Transparency and Trust Report - Public Safety & Community Relationships

Nov. 16, 2022
Veritone releases its 2022 Law Enforcement Transparency and Trust Report delivering Five Key Findings of Community Sentiment on Policing

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Officer, create an account today!