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When people go to a big event or simply take public transportation on their daily commute to work, they need to feel safe.
There are plenty of horrific examples of what can happen when people gather, whether in an arena, school or subway. Unfortunately, what should be fun or uneventful social experiences are now prime targets for those intent on spreading terror.
The numbers are frightening. In each of the past four years in the U.S. alone, there have been 600 mass shootings, according to a BBC report.
As radicalism spreads around the globe, the specter of chemical, biological, radiation or nuclear (CBRN) attacks also loom large. Between 1990 and 2020, the National Center for Biotechnology Information lists 565 such attacks, with nearly 1,000 fatalities and thousands more injuries. A 1995 sarin gas attack on a Japanese subway, among the highest-profile CBRN attacks, resulted in 13 deaths and 5,500 injuries.
These well-publicized tragedies are affecting people’s perceptions of safety in a crowd. According to a 2019 study by the American Psychological Association, one-third of respondents said fear prevents them from going to certain places or events.
Of course, our public safety professionals bear the brunt of responsibility for helping people feel safe in crowded situations.
Most public safety organizations, large venues and transportation hubs have plans in place to deter or respond to various attack scenarios. Plans on such a large scale must involve multiple partners, from venue security personnel to local, state and federal authorities to many other stakeholders, including local hospitals and emergency medical services.
Often, these agencies work together infrequently, if at all, and use their own communication and situational awareness protocols.
Because of this, communication is most often the weak link in both deterrence and collaborative response.
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
A high-profile recent example of what can happen when communication breaks down took place on July 13, 2024. One person was killed and three injured – including former President Donald Trump – when a rooftop shooter targeted the former president at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
According to a publicly released summary of a Secret Service report on the incident, the agency’s primary breakdown was a lack of centralized command and control, resulting in partners not being informed of critical information.
As nine separate agencies worked to protect the site, police identified Thomas Crooks as a potential threat nearly an hour before he opened fire on Trump and the crowd, but the information didn’t get to everyone, according to an Associated Press report.
“Some local police entities supporting the Butler venue had no knowledge that there were two separate communications centers on site (i.e., the Secret Service security room and the Butler County Emergency Services mobile command post). As a result, those entities were operating under a misimpression that the Secret Service was directly receiving their radio transmissions,” the Secret Service report summary said.
“Providing overlapping or redundant communications for a protective site is crucial,” the Secret Service report summary concluded. But that didn’t happen.
Without a standard communication platform and shared situational awareness, the site was never properly secured, and Secret Service agents on the podium were never informed there was a threat. The result of that miscommunication was deadly.
COMMON OPERATING PICTURE
Public safety agencies planning security and protecting the public at significant events can consider the assassination attempt a sobering reminder to emphasize communication and ensure all involved are on the same page.
Technology can help make that happen. Collaboration portals can host multiple agencies, allowing them to share data from disparate systems – site maps, video feeds, unit deployments, etc. – and see the same common operational picture in real time.
Such a tool can be employed for responding to any major incident or event, from a mass shooting or CBRN attack to a post-hurricane rescue effort. Consider the heroic rescue and cleanup efforts after Hurricane Helene devastated Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina communities. Herculean efforts like that require intense collaboration and coordination from local and federal agencies. Working within one platform, with everyone seeing the same picture, could be transformational and alleviate complicated processes through greater transparency and awareness.
Collaboration portals can also have artificial intelligence capabilities that analyze data from computer-aided dispatch systems, drones, sensors, video feeds and other inputs. When the AI spots a trend or anomaly in event data, it alerts stakeholders to help them quickly uncover related incidents or patterns.
The platform links all partners with command centers, security forces and first responders on the ground, sharing mobile communications and alerts. Had such technology been in place at the Trump rally, the early reports of Crooks’ suspicious behavior would likely have triggered an alert to all parties by AI.
In short, the likelihood of missing a shooter on a rooftop drops significantly when all eyes, plus AI, are on a common operating picture and in real-time communication.
UNIFYING TECHNOLOGY
Multiagency operations are difficult. Collaboration is critical to keeping significant events safe and preventing or responding to attacks. Everyone knows this, but that doesn’t make it easier when multiple agencies and hundreds of people are involved.
The takeaway is that organizational communication and data silos must be cast aside when planning to protect crowded venues. Technology such as collaboration portals can be the bridge that brings multiple agencies together as a unified force.
To learn more about Hexagon’s public safety solutions, please visit hxgnpublicsafety.com.
About the author
Bill Campbell is senior vice president, global public safety, for Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division.
