Definitions, Duties, & Resposibilities

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2. DEFINITIONS, DUTIES, &
RESPONSIBILITIES
Crowds, Crowd Management, & Crowd Managers

3. What is a crowd?
A concentration of large numbers of people in a relatively small area for a particular purpose
(Kingshott, 2014)
What is crowd management?
Crowd management is defined as the
planned movement and assembly of
people (Furin, 2015)
What is a crowd manager?
A crowd manager is an individual skilled in
crowd management who are well trained
and equipped to ensure the overall safety
of crowds in any situation.

4. Who can be a crowd manager?
● Anyone can be a crowd manager so long as they are properly trained within the context of
areas that they will be functioning in.
● Crowd manager roles are typically assigned to staff members already working an event. These
individuals must NOT have any other essential event-related functions during emergencies.
● Assigned crowd managers are expected to halt their other functions to focus on evacuation or
shelter-in-place procedures in the event of an emergency.
Why do we need crowd managers?
In large gatherings of people within a limited space, crowd managers take on these functions:
● Facilitate crowd movements
● Monitor crowd behaviors
● Take on an active role in guiding and assisting crowds in emergency situations

5. Historical Disasters
*Information acquired from NCDOI-OSFM Crowd Manager Training
● Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield South Yorkshire, England (1989) –
92 deaths and 700 injured due to crowd crush and trampling*
● The Station Nightclub Fire in Rhode Island (2003) – 100 deaths and
230 injured*
● Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting (2012) – 28 deaths and 2
injured
● Pulse Nightclub Shooting (2016) – 50 deaths and 58 injured
● Las Vegas Shooting (2017) – 59 deaths and 489 injured
Historically, human casualties in emergency situations occurred when venues were
inadequately prepared for potential injurious or life-threatening events. In more recent
times, when violent actions happened unexpectedly, well-trained and prepared staff
allowed faster reaction time that mitigated the number of deaths significantly

6. When do we need crowd managers?
For indoor settings:
● Gatherings of 1000 occupants or more, including venue staff,
require 1 crowd manager for every 250 people (1:250)
● In practice, for an expected occupancy of 1000, the venue would
require to provide 4 crowd managers. For 1001 people, 5 crowd
managers would be required
For events set up under tents:
● Gatherings of 250 occupants or more, including venue staff,
require 1 crowd manager for every 250 people (1:250)

7. What are the duties of crowd managers?*
*adopted from NCDOI-OSFM Crowd Manager Training
As regulated in New York State Fire Prevention Code 403.12.3.3 (adopted from the 2015
International Fire Code), the following are some of the duties of crowd managers:
1. Conduct an inspection of the area of responsibility and identify and address any egress
barriers.
2. Conduct an inspection of the area of responsibility to identify and mitigate any fire hazards.
3. Verify compliance with all permit conditions, including those governing pyrotechnics and other
special effects (applies only to Management staff).
4. Direct and assist the event attendees in evacuation during an emergency.
5. Assist emergency response personnel where requested.
6. Other duties required by the fire code official.
7. Other duties as specified in the fire safety plan.

8. What are the responsibilities of crowd managers?*
*adopted from NCDOI-OSFM Crowd Manager Training
● Know and review the Fire Safety and Evacuation Plans
● Know and understand Life Safety Systems
● Pre-Event Checks
● During-Event Checks
● Evacuation Procedures and Checks

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