Crowd Control Management
Paust, (1989 p.2) states that the Beachfront committee studied how the Florida cities of Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale dealt with the large crowds of college-age youths who gather there for spring break, then tried to draw from the best of the two cities' methods. Daytona Beach maintains a beefed-up security presence to enforce strict ordinances that are designed to control excessive drinking, noise and disorderly behavior. At the same time, the city provides entertainment, such as concerts, to give the students something to do, said Daytona Police Sgt. John Power.
When the city leaders decided not to plan properly for Greekfest, it essentially shot the city in the foot. Realistically, the oceanfront in a beach city is always the main attraction. When the city prevented the entertainment venues from being rented to the Greekfest promoter, it made the oceanfront the ONLY attraction. With 50,000 to 100,000 people in the same place, you can definitely expect to have crowding issues because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. If the crowds had other attractions or events to particpate in, then the size of the groups would have been less of an issue for the police. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that 50,000 people spreaded out in different locations is more manageble, from a crowd control perspective, than 50,000 in the same place.
When the city leaders decided not to plan properly for Greekfest, it essentially shot the city in the foot. Realistically, the oceanfront in a beach city is always the main attraction. When the city prevented the entertainment venues from being rented to the Greekfest promoter, it made the oceanfront the ONLY attraction. With 50,000 to 100,000 people in the same place, you can definitely expect to have crowding issues because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. If the crowds had other attractions or events to particpate in, then the size of the groups would have been less of an issue for the police. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that 50,000 people spreaded out in different locations is more manageble, from a crowd control perspective, than 50,000 in the same place.