“Event organizers should review their emergency plans after the deadly shooting at a California food festival to see if they can make additional safety improvements as the peak of summer and fair season brings open-air environments that are notoriously difficult to secure, law enforcement experts said.” – SOURCE: AP news

The obvious answer is, “YES.”

Critical incidents as the shooting at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California can happen anytime, anywhere.

Emergency Management Coordinators certainly have to have special events on their Hazard Vulnerability Assessment Matrices. “A hazard identification and risk assessment provides the factual basis for activities proposed in the strategy portion of a hazard mitigation plan. An effective risk assessment informs proposed actions by focusing attention and resources on the greatest risks. The four basic components of a risk assessment are: 1) hazard identification, 2) profiling of hazard events, 3) inventory of assets, and 4) estimation of potential human and economic losses based on the exposure and vulnerability of people, buildings, and infrastructure.”

Fairs, car shows and events, as Columbia’s Bridge Bust, certainly qualify as “soft targets” of opportunity for persons who want to gain notoriety or sow discontent. And every jurisdiction and municipality in the United States has pledged to implement Incident Action Planning for all special events and critical incidents.

• Special Events Contingency Planning
• Special Event Emergency Action Plan Guide