Protecting the Events Sector Sharing the latest intelligence information, tapping into new technology to thwart terror attacks, and trying to boost security measures without disrupting the experience of the paying public are but some of the challenges facing today’s arena security teams. Richard Smirke reports…
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any years ago, security for concerts and music events was quite simple,” reflects Reg Walker, director of Iridium Consultancy, which works with a number of UK venues and festivals. “It was either, ‘Yes, you can come in’; ‘No, you can’t come in’; or ‘Sorry, you’re misbehaving, you’ll have to leave’. That was effectively it. If you fast-forward to now, security staff are expected to be cognisant in crowd safety and crowd management. Be able to secure evidence. Be welfare officers. We expect them to take part in counterterrorism security measures, be search experts, first aiders, carry out drug detection, and deal with organised crime groups and pick pockets. The list goes on and on. The demands on security staff, and their roles, have changed so dramatically that they’re almost unrecognisable from what they were 20 or 30 years ago.” Driving those changes has been a constant and ongoing focus on improving crowd safety and, in turn, the customer experience. Top of the agenda for many security professionals today is combating the heightened threat of terrorism – a historic danger that became tragic reality following the Bataclan and Paris attacks of 2015, and last year’s Manchester Arena bombing, which killed 22 people, many of them children, and injured hundreds more.
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