Barricade Breach - Insights into Event Security

Recently Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, was served a subpoena on stage during a panel discussion.

Another incident occurred in Singapore that made news, a man jumped over a barricade and rushed pop star and actress Ariana Grande. The incident took place during the" The Wicked: For Good" movie premiere at Universal Studios Singapore. In videos circulating online, a man was seen putting his arm around Grande while jumping up and down. He was subsequently tackled and removed by security, but not before putting his hands on her and being shoved away by her co-star.

Security at events can be a challenge. Often times there is the appearance of security, but not much in the way of application. I have done a number of concerts and celebrity events with different levels of security from the front facing crowd to personal protection backstage.

At events, the welfare and protection of the celebrity is a priority, along with crowd control. It not enough these days to just have people standing around looking like security.

Fans tend to get excited and some will make any attempt to reach a celebrity. Most people want a photo or autograph, but every attempt must be treated as a threat, because you never know what someone is capable of or their intent. I have multiple stories of such attempts and some are scary.

A security team should constantly look at every person in the vicinity and read body language and facial expressions. Be on the look out for anything that can be thrown or cause harm, and know the fastest evacuation route in case of emergency.

It's often best to have two or more layers of security one to protect the celebrity and another team to manage the crowd. Often very different skills are needed for those two positions. I've even had a third layer with a personal body guard to shadow every move.

At events that involve interaction with fans, security teams have to carry out risk assessments before the event and be aware of persons of interest and active threats. It's astonishing how many well know people have regular threats made against them.

Any event can be a target from an active shooter to a celebrity stalker. What happened thankfully didn't result in anyone hurt, but it highlights a glaring weakness in many events that could have tragic results. We need to do better.

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