Special Events Radar

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

In February 2013, Chesterfield Fire and EMS initiated the “Special Events Radar” program to capture information about planned special events in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The purpose was to gain a clear picture of when and where events are taking place and to understand their potential risks to public safety. The program reaches out to organizers and various sources within state and county government to gather information. Each event is assessed for risks, catalogued in a master list, and shared with stakeholders. Based on the events on the master list, emergency resources can be aligned in advance to cover special events without compromising overall service delivery. Over the first three years, the number of stakeholders that subscribe to the program increased from initially 5 to currently 77 members. During the same time frame, the number of processed events increased by 102% and amounted to 348 events in 2015. The program made it possible to manage the vast majority of events with on-duty resources at no cost to organizers and no negative impact to the rest of the County. Meanwhile, this program has become the clearing house for special events and promotes Chesterfield County as a well-prepared, safe host of special events.