Park Security
parkworld-online.com
Enemy at the Gates
Exercising your park’s soft spots I
was standing in line the other day waiting to get into a pretty popular theme park in southern California, and the exercise designer in me began thinking evil
thoughts and horrible scenarios. These scenarios focused mainly on how soft a target the outside of a venue is, and how closely packed the park attendees are prior to actually getting in the park. Fortunately, I use my powers only for good. I have designed and facilitated hundreds of exercises, on a myriad of topics, but I realised that morning that I have never been asked to exercise for an event that happens on the outside of venue, or prior to opening. The threat picture for places where people gather has
changed. The way companies plan, train, and exercise for these threats must adapt to these changes. We only need to watch the news and see vehicles being used as weapons such as in Nice, France, or on the Ohio State University campus. We have learned from too many years of wars overseas, the effectiveness of improvised explosive devices on areas where people congregate. Sadly, it is also becoming a too familiar headline of
another shooter causing very high casualty counts. Many of these attacks are happening in areas without security, or as in the recent Manchester Arena bombing or the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting, on the unsecure side of security. Tactics such as these will be employed again and
SEPTEMBER 2017
again, by lone wolf actors or small groups, because they are cheap, easy, and effective. Just because exercises have historically only occurred
inside the stadium, the theme park, or the zoo doesn't mean they always have to. Terrorists change their tactics, so should we. Waiting in line to enter, I thought through many different scenarios, and even as I was travelling through the security funnels, and the cursory bag and coat check, I realised most employees were also going through the motions. Security theater. My multi-tool has been a permanent resident on my hip since high school. It made it through security just by shoving it in the backpack and into my hat. I’ll admit I only realised it was still on my hip once my family got in line, and I didn't want to walk ALL the way back to the car to get rid of it. But what if it wasn’t a multitool, and what if that line of people were my target? Pre opening times can have the largest crowds of unchecked individuals, in some of the densest proximities, and depending on if I want to pay a little more, a vehicle parked nearby. We need to acknowledge this soft spot and takes steps to begin to harden it. A simple tabletop exercise of easily accomplished
scenarios with the security staff and local first responders would reveal some low hanging fruit that could be easily fixed and lead to an increased level of
readiness.Things that
69
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108
