Event Security & Risk Management for Colleges, Universities, and Large Venues

Our Approach to Public Safety & Event Security

• McCarthy Byrnes works alongside your public safety team to deliver seamless security solutions.
• Our team is composed of former law enforcement leaders with first-hand experience managing high-profile events.
• We specialize in:
  • Risk assessment
  • Event security planning for colleges, universities, and large-scale venues
• We help institutions host high-profile speakers, athletic events, and major gatherings:
  • Safely
  • Lawfully
  • Without disrupting campus life
• Our security strategies align with:
  • DHS & CISA – Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency guidelines
  • FEMA – Federal Emergency Management Agency protocols
  • NIMS / ICS – National Incident Management System and Incident Command System standards
  • NFPA 101 – National Fire Protection Association crowd management standards
  • Clery Act – Compliance requirements for campus safety

Ensuring protection of free expression while maintaining community safety.

What We Do: Comprehensive Event Security Services

• Event Security Risk Assessment
  Identify threats, venue vulnerabilities, protest dynamics, and operational risks. Our assessments follow DHS/CISA mass gathering security planning best practices.
• Policy & Plan Development
  Customized Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs), crowd management strategies, evacuation/shelter protocols, and time-place-manner rules tailored to campus policies and Clery Act obligations.
• ICS/Unified Command Setup
  Implement Incident Command System (ICS) roles, checklists, and playbooks for standardized execution under FEMA NIMS.
• Training & Exercises
  Tabletop and functional drills, crowd manager training, and optional CISA Securing Public Gatherings workshops.
• On-Site Event Operations
  Perimeter security, access control, screening, VIP routing, vehicle mitigation, EMS integration, and real-time crowd monitoring.
• After-Action & Continuous Improvement
  Post-event reviews benchmarked against DOJ/BJA planning guidance to strengthen future operations.

Who We Serve

• Colleges & Universities hosting controversial or high-profile speakers
• Athletics & Performing Arts Venues
• Convention Centers & Large Municipal Venues (including IAVM member venues)

Our Approach

Assess → Plan → Train → Execute → Review
Our methodology integrates protective intelligence (NTAC), DHS/CISA mass-gathering frameworks, ICS command discipline, and NFPA crowd management standards to deliver safe, orderly events while upholding free speech rights.

Why Choose McCarthy Byrnes

• Seasoned Law Enforcement & Venue Security Experts
  Our leadership team brings decades of experience in public safety, risk management, and event security consulting.
• Proven Compliance & Best Practices
  We routinely coordinate with fusion centers, review homeland security briefs, and develop Emergency Management Plans aligned with DHS guidance.
• Expert Witness & Consulting Capabilities
  Trusted by institutions and legal teams for authoritative security assessments and testimony.

“Large Event & Speaker Safety: Best Practices”

Hosting a polarizing speaker or a marquee event demands predictable safety and protected expression. Start with ICS/Unified Command, bring campus counsel and public safety into pre‑planning, and align your EOP with Clery responsibilities for alerts and notifications. Build layered physical security—vehicle barriers, controlled entry points, VIP routing—and engineer crowd flows with trained crowd managers at a 1:250 ratio. Finally, run a tabletop, brief your whole team (including volunteers) with clear scripts, and close with an after-action‑ review to improve continuously.

Best practices for large event safety & speaker security

1) Governance & compliance
Adopt ICS/Unified Command with clearly defined roles (Incident Commander, Safety Officer, PIO) and interoperable comms; ensure event policies and EOPs satisfy Clery and campus policy‑requirements.

2) Intelligence led‑ threat assessment
Stand up prevent‑ protective intelligence: speaker risk profiling, social media monitoring, protest mapping, and liaison with fusion centers; align with USSS NTAC behavioral threat assessment guidance.

3) Stakeholder coordination & “Hometown Security”
Execute DHS’s Connect–Plan–Train–Report approach with campus police, local PD/FD/EMS, and venue/security contractors; request DHS/CISA Securing Public Gatherings Workshop when helpful. 

4) Crowd management engineering
Design ingress/egress flows; post occupancy certificates; deploy trained crowd managers at a 1:250 ratio; script prevent exit announcements; set up ‑real-time density monitoring and ‑heat mitigation‑ stations.

5) Physical security layers
Harden perimeters and “last mile” approaches; vehicle mitigation (‑crash rated‑ bollards/temporary barriers), controlled entry screening proportional to threat; compartmentalize VIP routes and green rooms. 

6) Free speech‑ & protest planning
Pre‑coordinate time, place, manner restrictions that are content neutral‑; define thresholds where protest becomes civil unrest and plan lawful de‑escalation; communicate ground rules publicly.

7) Medical & welfare operations
Publish a medical plan, fixed/roving EMS posts, AEDs, cooling and hydration points; design shaded queuing and “quiet rooms”; integrate mutual aid‑ medical transport triggers.

8) Training & exercises
Deliver ICS/NIMS refreshers; run tabletop and functional exercises covering controversial speaker‑ scenarios, crowd surges, counter‑protests, and comms; leverage CISA Mass Gathering Security Planning Tool outputs as injects. 

9) Event communications & PIO
Conduct proactive messaging for expectations and safety; establish rumor control; coordinate with legal on Clery compliant‑ timely warnings or emergency notifications if thresholds are met.

10) Post event‑ after‑action
Capture lessons learned and improvement plans (BJA Planning Primer model); update SOPs and re‑train.