Author: Josh Layne

FM Issue: January/February 2017

The San Diego Convention Center hosted a political rally in May 2016 for one of the candidates during the presidential primaries. The candidate was Donald Trump.

The rally was anticipated to be upwards of 12,000 to 20,000 in attendance, with the potential that it could be met by a sizeable group of protestors.

Although we had the unusual advantage of having two weeks’ notice before it was held, the nature of these kinds of events can bring some serious challenges to a convention center. Everyone involved had their own goals.

• Our purpose was to serve as a premiere and safe gathering place, providing excellent customer service to our client and their guests.
• The event organizers’ concern was their candidate and what the news cameras would see.
• The U.S. Secret Service protective details were focused on the safety of the candidate, concerned with details on the screening process of the crowd, the physical safety of the secured space inside, and the routes out of the venue.

Therefore, it was up to us as the facility managers to ensure the important aspects like crowd management, the protection of the building assets, employee safety, incident response, and emergency planning. A major campaign rally such as this one called for a joint plan that was developed in close collaboration with our local police department and first responders.

As we neared the event date, our staff was able to develop significant intelligence on what to expect. Four days prior, Mr. Trump held a rally in a nearby southern California city, which was met with a sizeable protest that escalated. It caused property damage and overwhelmed the local police force with the combined crowd size of attendees and demonstrators.

The Plan

Based on this information, several key decisions were made. First, our president & CEO made the decision to add two additional halls for the event that would be used to queue the line of guests inside of the venue and keep them separated from any potential protestors outside of the building. The second decision by the San Diego Police Department was to cordon off the building exterior and close a large portion of the main road in front of the convention center, which would accommodate the protest group while keeping them separate from the arriving attendees.

When we were planning the crowd management portion of the event, it was decided that the organizer would only be focused on the interior of their leased space. Two days out from the rally date, we made the decision to directly hire additional event security to manage the crowd and recuperate the cost from the client’s incidental coverage. The event security team would be responsible for screening the initial building entry and managing the line inside of the exhibit halls, while our in-house security focused on securing the unused portions of the building and overall asset protection. Thanks to an excellent partnership with our local providers, we were able to hire a competent team of security professionals with little advanced notice.

The responsibility of the area outside our venue went into the capable hands of the San Diego Police, who were augmented with personnel from the San Diego County Sherriff’s Department and from several law enforcement officers from neighboring cities. Inside, there was an additional police force from the city’s Special Events Team, who are officers that are accustomed to working major events within the convention center.

The Event

At the entry point, we placed a team of event security guards who screened out contraband items before allowing guests to enter the building. They had large bins that allowed guests to discard any items which were not permitted. Before an item could be discarded in a bin, the guard at the post was required to clear it as “safe.” This involved opening any bags to show they were not a potential threat and displaying their contents. While this process took a little bit of extra time, it did not hinder the quick entrance of our guests. The fact that our police officers were walking the sidewalks, informing attendees of what would not be allowed inside, helped to speed this process along greatly.

Inside of the hall where the line was queued, there was another team of event security and a team of our San Diego Convention Center Guest Services ticket takers managing the entrance to the secured space. Inside of the rally halls, Secret Service, San Diego Police Officers, and the candidate’s own traveling security team were responsible for managing the space.

On the day of the rally, employees were all scheduled to arrive for work two to four hours prior to the event time. Police officers were all on post earlier than that, with the first officers arriving in the predawn hours, with the full force on duty about four hours before the 2 p.m. start time. This was necessary since the rally crowd began to line up four hours prior as well.

About an hour before the scheduled start of the event, a sizeable protest group had formed and began marching toward the convention center. Our law enforcement partners managed this portion and channeled the group into the demonstration area, which fulfilled its role as planned.

Several arrests were made outside, and police eventually dispersed the crowd that night. The plan was considered a complete success as the rally was held without incident inside the building.

The key to our success was simply collaboration. Thanks to the excellent planning and response from our local police and our staff, the only damage that was suffered by our facility was a bed of plants, which were trampled near the demonstration area. Within 24 hours after the rally, the convention center was ready to move in our next client, who felt no impact from this major undertaking.

Josh Layne is director of security guest services at the San Diego Convention Center and also sits on IAVM’s Industry Security Council.