Safe Events: Festivals, Sports, Protests

Large gatherings are characteristic of free societies, but these events also create opportunities for criminal conduct and have the potential to make people feel unsafe. Effective safety strategies for events are likely to include careful planning and organisation, comprehensive risk assessments, entry screening, deterrence and de-escalation by security providers, and safe spaces. Formal partnershipsPartnerships between event organisers, policePolice and private security also appear as a probable ingredient of success. Specifically, the democratic right to public demonstrations poses significant management issues for policePolice and protest organisers. Too little control can result in rioting and extensive harms to property and persons. At the same time, in many places, responses to protests are characterised by policePolice violence and denials of political rights. PolicePolice need to make use of best practice principles for managing demonstrations, focusing on negotiation and agreements with protest organisers, with shared responsibility for security.