Managing the Mob

The 17th century British clergyman and writer Thomas Fuller observed that “the mob has many heads but no brains.” This is as true today as it was 400 years ago, judging by the number of “crowd crazing” incidents at venues ranging from soccer matches to holiday sales events.

Stampedes and crowd issues at sports stadiums and entertainment venues have claimed 1,952 lives worldwide since 1988, according to data compiled by Crowd Dynamics, a U.K.-based consultancy. During that same period, 2,586 died in tramplings at religious events, primarily in Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan.

Problems at retail venues, while less frequent, have also taken tragic turns, including the well-publicized death of a part-time employee at the Walmart store in Valley Stream, N.Y., during Black Friday 2008.

Some academics have recommended that so-called “doorbuster” sales be eliminated entirely to avoid herd mentality, while others favor issuing tickets or bracelets in a manner similar to that used at concerts. But the key is a hands-on approach to crowd management by making it central to operational planning.

“The more pro-active you are, the better,” says Angélica Rodriguez, senior director of loss prevention for the National Retail Federation. “The precautions depend on the size of the event and where it’s taking place, but it’s very important to forge relationships and keep the lines of communication open between loss prevention, mall security and law enforcement.”

Gary Weksler, executive vice president of Elite and JMS Investigations, a New York City-based firm that handles security and crowd control for a multitude of special events, says “the last thing you want to do is keep [law enforcement] out of the loop until the last minute. Without proper advance planning they might only have limited resources on hand. With planning, they can have a task force on alert.”

Most retailers have protocols for assessing the environment for Black Friday or other major events, says Joe LaRocca, NRF’s senior advisor for asset protection. “But crowds fuel themselves: One person pushes and another feels obligated to push back. Whenever people have to stand in line there is a propensity for that to happen.”

This makes knowing the crowd’s pressure points all the more important, according to Keith Still, consultant and visiting professor at the Center of Crowd Management and Security Studies at Bucks New University in Buckinghamshire, U.K.