Sold-Out Lawn, One Screening Lane
You supervise 22 security staff at a sold-out outdoor amphitheater: 6,000 tickets, 94°F at 19:40, main act at 21:00. The lawn holds 2,500 by permit; your clicker count says 2,700. Gate B has one screening lane open instead of two because two screeners called out, and roughly 800 ticket holders are queued on an unshaded asphalt apron. At Gate A a man refuses bag check and insists on carrying in a hard-sided cooler, saying 'you can't search me, that's illegal.' Near the concession stand a 15-year-old is vomiting and unsteady, with no adult in sight; a friend says they 'shared a couple.' A freelance videographer with a professional camera rig is standing in the photo pit without a credential. Your radio has one channel shared by all 22 staff, and the venue's EMS team is on the far side of the bowl.
1. Rank these four problems by intervention priority and state the criterion you used.
Read the worked answer
The criterion is time-to-irreversible-harm, not who is loudest. First: the lawn count and the queue, because 200 people over permitted capacity plus 800 on hot asphalt with one screening lane is how a crush begins, and crush is the only item on this list that can kill dozens at once. Second: the 15-year-old, because a vomiting, unsteady minor is a medical emergency and a duty-of-care issue that worsens by the minute. Third: the man refusing bag check, a controlled confrontation at a fixed point with staff present. Fourth: the videographer, a credential problem rather than a safety one unless he blocks the pit or a sightline. Notice that the lawn and the queue share a single fix - hold Gate B intake briefly and open the second lane - which is why ranking by outcome severity beats ranking by order of arrival.
2. Write your response to the man refusing bag check: what is your authority, what do you say, and what are the three possible outcomes?
Read the worked answer
Your authority comes from property, not police power: it is a private venue, entry is conditioned on the search, and you may refuse admission. Say: 'This isn't a police search. Entry is conditioned on the bag check and I can't make an exception - you can check the bag here, leave the cooler in the free item hold, or get a refund at the ticket window and not come in.' The three outcomes are consent, voluntary withdrawal, or continued refusal, which becomes a trespass matter for a supervisor and, if the venue escalates, the police - not a tug-of-war over a cooler. Never touch the bag to 'just peek' after refusal, and never put hands on him to escort him out unless a trained escort team and policy authorize it. A bag-check argument that becomes a battery claim costs the venue far more than one ticket.
3. Set out the steps for the 15-year-old, including what you must not do.
Read the worked answer
Seat him upright out of the sun with a staff member or the venue EMS team and do not leave him alone; check responsiveness and breathing and hand care to the medics rather than 'monitoring' him yourself; try to identify a guardian and reconstruct how he entered and who served him, using the wristband and the friend's account; notify the venue's medical/minor lead and involve police only as policy requires; then write a report with times, observations, statements and who took custody. Do not interrogate him for a confession, do not photograph him, do not release him to an adult you cannot verify as a guardian, and do not put him in a closed office alone. Serving a minor is a licensing matter for the alcohol permit, so record who served him and when as fact, not as accusation.