A Child Is Missing in the Venue

A parent at your family day cannot find her seven-year-old. It has been eleven minutes. The venue has four exits, a car park and a canal along one side.

Setting: Community family festival, 4,000 attendees, riverside park and pavilion, mid-afternoon. Category: Safety & First Response. Pressure level: Critical.

This page is the individual, citable address for this one situation: https://gatheringarchitecture.com/crisis-sim/scenario/missing-person

The situation

The mother is holding her phone with a photo taken this morning: red jacket, blue shoes. Last seen at the face-painting tent. Your radio is quiet; nobody else knows yet. There is a canal fifty metres east and a car park filling up to the north.

First moves and what each one costs

• Declare a missing-child search on all radios with the description, station staff on every exit, send searchers to water and car park first, call police, and keep one person with the mother — Within four minutes exits are covered, the water edge is being walked and police are en route. Everything is happening at once, which is what this needs.
• Have two staff look around the tents before escalating, to avoid panicking the crowd — Six more minutes pass. Exits stay open. Comfort for the crowd has been bought with the child's time.
• Make a PA announcement with the child's name and description immediately — Four thousand people now have the description, including anyone with bad intent, and the exits are still unstaffed.

Preparation notes for this situation

• Agree the missing-child procedure with the venue and police before doors open, including who can lock exits
• Take a description and a photograph from the parent in the first minute, and stay with them
• Search outward from the last known point, and cover water and car parks first
• Never announce a child's name and appearance to a crowd that includes the person who may have taken them
• A found child is never walked anywhere by one staff member alone, and is only handed over once the guardian's identity is confirmed

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