Today’s casualty figures from yesterday’s catastrophic stampede at a German music festival: 19 dead, over 300 injured. A lengthy Daily Mail account of the event includes a video clip and several photographs of the tunnel where panicking attendees squeezed together with suffocating intensity (Ref. 1). One witness even claimed he could see the potential calamity coming some 45 minutes before it happened. Did he really convey anything useful to police at the event, whom he accused of being insensitive to his warning? Doubtful. Any Monday morning quarterback may recast on-scene grousing into dire predictions after the fact. Could the stampede and casualty count have been averted? Absolutely.
Crowd Control
Event security practitioners call it crowd control for a reason. It is not just about signage, ingress, and egress routes – although these are important. Crowds can be innocuous or lethal. Their capacity and intensity vary according to the event and to the immediate circumstances affecting them at different points in time. Crowds change, even at the same event. What started out as a cohesive crowd of tame spectators yesterday ended up turning into an escape mob that rapidly went out of control (Ref. 2). What counts most in crowd control? Leadership.
“Leadership has a profound effect on the intensity and direction of crowd behavior … The first person to give clear orders in an authoritative manner is likely to be followed.” So says the US Army Field Manual on Civil Disturbances (Ref. 3). One of the thorny problems with conveying directions to a crowd at a music festival, however, is being heard. Reporting on yesterday’s event indicated that parts of the crowd were oblivious to ambulance sirens and anguished cries of stampede victims, as amplified music was drowning out other ambient noise. For crowd control, this means that bullhorns and loudspeakers would not have helped yesterday.
Leadership comes in many forms, and it need not necessarily be in commanding crowds to disperse. One of the most important things to do is to keep the crowd moving and, if at all possible, to do this with a light touch (Ref. 4). While this is easier said than done, there is precedent to support that a keen sense of how to avoid chokepoints can keep crowds from becoming stampeding mobs.
Big Event Success Stories
An untrumpeted beneficial demonstration of crowd control came in 1984 from then Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department Daryl Gates. Fearing potential terrorist attacks, a joint task force including the Secret Service and an assortment of federal agencies had converged on Los Angeles to assist with preparations for the Olympic Games. One security product of this collaboration was the introduction of metal detectors through which all spectators were to pass. As lines behind the metal screening points started to grow exponentially, it became evident that the metal detectors threatened to cause more of a problem than they would potentially solve. This was clear to the crowd and to event staff. But no one seemed able to do anything about it – until Chief Gates stepped in and ordered the lines open and the metal detectors shut down – while other officials were still dithering about who had the authority to make that call. As a result, a public relations fiasco and the potential for a stampede were averted. Someone took charge, rapidly assessed conditions, made a tradeoff decision involving chokepoints, and adjusted security and crowd control to make the best of the situation.
Think also of Woodstock, where authorities avoided stampedes by deciding to stop trying to force gate crashers to pay for the iconic, open-air concert once it became clear that attendance had overwhelmed ticket sales.
A Micro-Level Comparison
Years ago, when I was master of ceremonies for an annual event that my service club put on for my community, I found we had grown to the point of having to contract with local law enforcement for a security presence. Experience showed that this was an attractive duty for the cops, who received overtime pay otherwise not available, in addition to free food and all beverages except beer. Past experience also showed, however, that assigned officers had a tendency to congregate and lose themselves in their own conversations when not refeeding, rehydrating, or attending to a call for immediate assistance. So we actually developed a security plan and, when signing the contract for the support our club was paying for, we established fixed and roving security posts as well as regular communication intervals and feedback loops so that police and event organizers worked closely rather than independently. As a result, traffic and crowd control worked flawlessly, even as the annual event started to outgrow its original size and require a larger site and shuttle buses to accommodate attendees.
Lessons for the Germans
Germany is no stranger to public events and crowd control. So the Germans will no doubt arrive at these same lessons as they perform their failure analysis:
• If you are going to use your police force, then assume command and control the crowd.
• Keep the crowd moving.
• Keep the crowd engaged. Communicate with them effectively. This may mean having your officers talk to them as they pass by or, if the music is too loud, then having elevated, electronic signs that you can change as circumstances warrant. Even a flip sign with some different messages that police can hold over head to adjust crowd movements can help.
• Run through multiple scenarios in advance. If you see a dangerous chokepoint, seal it off and set up signs and officers in advance to keep it from turning into a gathering point or attractive nuisance with the potential for becoming a death trap, as the tunnel did yesterday.
• Above all, put in charge someone who has the capacity and judgment to shift priorities and make on-the-spot decisions, like closing off a chokepoint, redirecting traffic, or changing the rules on the fly if this is what it will take to avoid turning a tame crowd into a stampeding mob.
References:
1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1297346/Love-Parade-17-crushed-death-80-injured-mass-panic-tunnel.html
2. Jane’s Facility Security Handbook, 2nd Edition, by D.S. Fenn et al, Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, 2006, pp. 277-278.)
3. FM 19-15, Civil Disturbances, 2005, p. 2-2.
4. Event Risk Management and Safety, by P.E. Tarlow, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002, pp. 102-103.
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Nick Catrantzos + Tom Goff
- All Secure
- NICK CATRANTZOS is the lead author of the All Secure website and is the emeritus security director for a large public organization. He has also managed security aspects of corporate takeovers, response to international hostage situations, and finding and keeping secrets. He has been board certified in security management, licensed as a private investigator, and certified as an incident commander. He worked as a case officer for a discreet branch of public service. He protected stealth technology at Lockheed and, later, as a consulting security director for both Kroll and Control Risks, he assisted executives with workplace violence cases and with protecting VIPs and critical assets globally in volatile areas. Nick's partner, TOM GOFF, was a captain in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve and has a law degree from the University of California at Davis. He is a former reporter for Fortune Magazine, was senior editor at New York Magazine and Esquire, and has provided crisis and communications counsel to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed, ARCO, Microsoft, Nissan, and Sony Pictures.