Kartik Rustagi
Events Management
Ms. Fitch
November 7, 2018
Crowd Management
A crowd is a common group of people united by a common ideology, belief or idea. However, the characteristics and attributes of the crowd are far different from that of the individuals within the group. When part of a crowd, individuals tend to be controlled by their instinct and reflexes rather choosing to be rational and questioning the movement of the group. These categorical changes in emotional characteristics of individuals when part of a group are produced by three causes, and crowd management companies try to curb these causes to maintain a sense of safety and civility in the crowd at times of an emergency or hazardous conditions. 1) When in a crowd, the anonymity that the crowd provides to the individual due to an excessive number of people means that they lose their fear of consequences and moral obligation to be courteous to the people around them. This sudden anonymity causes a temporary feeling of invincibility and makes it difficult for them to restrain certain instincts. 2) In a crowd, every act is contagious, to a point where an individual will sacrifice her/his personal interest over the interest of the crowd. Due to the subtle feeling of solidarity and togetherness, even irrational acts may seem an appropriate course of action as long as it is reciprocated by the entire crowd. 3) When individuals spend a certain amount of time in a group, they enter a hypnotic state where the actions of the leaders mesmerize them, and to certain extent influence them, often times, lead performers/artists trigger mayhem which is instantly reflected.
Congestion in small areas are becoming increasingly serious problems for modern event planners. Accidents caused by improper crowd management not only cause loss of life, but also leave a negative impact on infrastructure and environment. Hence management companies are imposed with responsibility of comprehending their audience as a crowd and formulating methods and techniques to make crowd management effective. In large-scale events such as sporting, protests and rally, which attract thousands of spectators, the probability of accidents caused by improper crowd management increase substantially and consequently become a bigger risk factor. In terms of the planning stage, it is imperative to comprehend the dynamics of the crowd and understand the demographic of the client one is serving. For example, a crowd attending ‘Phantom of The Opera’ on Broadway would be much different than the crowd in a stadium spectating a wrestling match.
Crowds can be broadly divided into four categories – casual, sighting, agitated and mob-like. Casual crowds consist of small groups or individuals, who occupy a common place with different agenda and motives, people usually arrive and depart separately because of lack engagement with each other. Sighting crowds are essentially casual crowds but in an event setting, where people have a common motivation to come and be a part of something. Agitated crowds cover those groups of gatherings where people become emotionally involved and a strong sense of attachment is felt. This affects the overall demeanor of the crowd and invariably increases the probability of an accident or misfortune caused by reckless crowds since they are motivated emotionally.
Mob-like crowds can be described as any of the above listed types of crowds but with one distinct feature, being aggressive and violent. These crowds are not only motivated to cause destruction and physical damage, but also contagious based on the involvement of each individual. Thus, being aware of psychological patterns and involvement of people in a crowd is important for planning strategies. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 2004 (OHS), employers are obligated to take act rationally and reasonably take care of their employees, customers and stakeholders, and maintain and healthy and safe environment at the workplace. The additional recommendations by the act are really effective when physically managing violent or aggressive crowd or/and initiating an emergency evacuation of an event or venue that imposes a safety threat to all the attendees. To implicate the OHS laws, it is of paramount importance for the host agencies and employers to have a well-structured knowledge of the current OHS laws that apply on their event. There are five crucial principles that lay the foundation for OHS laws and make sure healthy practices are undertaken in the workplace and venue. 1) All people have the highest level of protection 2) Employees are entitles to representation 3) Information should be shared about risks and controls 4) Employees ought to be trained in being proactive in managing and evading risks 5) Those in control are responsible for eliminating risks.
Crowd management involves a great amount of risk, and this risk can be minimized by acting quickly, preparing in advance for unforeseen circumstances, training employees and staff to be unflappable and have a hazard analysis plan that consists of well defined procedures and steps that need to be taken.
A hazard analysis plan can be defined as the measures and steps that need to be taken when circumstances that could lead to undesirable results arise. Hazard analysis also includes the study and identification of various types of risks and categorizes them according to the capabilities and comprehension of the employees. These risks are identified by utilizing information from all domains including but not limited to employees, human resources reports, past incident records and industry experts. An ideal corporation or company focusing on crowd management shouldn’t undermine any hazard or suggestion and strive to create an analysis plan that is holistic and intuitive. After identification, the risks need to be measured and assessed. While assessing any risk, a manager should ask fundamental questions like ‘why’ ‘what’ and ‘how’ to gradually break down the hazard and reach to its core in order to have a better comprehension and employ a course of action that will be viable and productive. These risks are identified and assessed in order to rank them according to their severity and prioritize the remedial course of action. Used industry wide, the management seeks to find the answers to two critical risk assessment questions, what is the probability of the risk taking place and what consequences does it impose on the stakeholders in case it does occur. But irrespective of this assessment and ranking system, an effective crowd manager will prioritize the safety of and wellbeing of the crowd, consequently preparing for each and every risk. After this process, the crowd controller develops plans and methods to not only mitigate the effects of these unfortunate events, but eliminate them completely. The controlling stage is the most crucial stage in crowd management as it involves practical execution of all the research and analysis that has been undertaken so far.
A crowd controller is a professional personnel staff member who is essentially employed to maintain order and civility in the venue, and keep a track of all activates happening with high crowd density. The controlling stage begins from the very first moment of any event, entry of attendees. Controlling the movement of people while entering and exiting the venue is crucial as this is a time frame in which individuals are relatively less patient and in haste. The role of the controller is to ensure that all the entrance points are staffed sufficiently and to monitor the crowd to spot any potential intoxicated or troublesome individual who may indicate signs of risk to other attendees. All the staff members should be provided with designated uniforms so that a person in distress can easily seek help and bring the problem to management’s attention as quickly as possible. Along with protective uniforms, staff members should be a given a communicating device such as a radio to send information without leaving their designated area. Competent and trained staff members are pivotal to the safety and wellbeing of any event as they can extend the jurisdiction of the crowd manager and detect any potential risk that may be stopped even before it becomes a problem. After receiving all the attendees, it is important to guard all the entrances throughout the event to avoid the presence of an alien or unwanted individual.
Then the crowd is monitored by various technologies and staff members to supervise and maintain order, any act that may seem suspicious or may indicate the need of assistance is noticed and acted upon using the hazard analysis plan. In this case, it is important for the staff members to know their knowledge and duties to act promptly.
At the end of the event, one of the most overseen steps of any crowd management process is documenting and evaluating the incidents that took place during the event. Under law, it is mandatory for the controller to report all risks and accidents in order to investigate the cause and prevent it in the future. These reports should be detailed and include every possible aspect of the event that led to the unfortunate circumstances.
Crowd management has become a substantial part of any event and needs to be undertaken diligently and meticulously. All safety staff members should be included in the hazard analysis and motivated to become an active member of the team. Along with an intensive hazard analysis plan, management should make sure that the designated employee is equipped with sufficient resource to communicate with her/his peers and efficiently execute the remedial steps.