Risk and safety planning before you announce anything

Ninety minutes, a sheet of paper, two people. Do it before the date is public, because afterwards your choices narrow to two: go ahead, or cancel in front of everybody who was coming.

There is no form and nobody signs this off. You need nobody’s authorisation to organise anything on this page, and the ninety minutes is the whole exercise.

Two decisions below reach people who are not in the room when you make them. The camera rule and the walk home go out with the announcement. Somebody with an employer or an immigration application is entitled to know your rule before they commit, not on the day.

The grid, filled in

A vigil in the market square after an attack on a synagogue two counties away, Sunday 15 March, four o’clock. Sixty people expected. Four organisers, no organisation behind them. Naomi leads, Danny takes notes and talks to press, Sara has welfare.

What could go wrong	How likely	How bad, and for whom	What we will do, decided now
A counter-protest arrives	Likely	Medium	Naomi rings the police contact on Thursday and asks where they will be held. On the day we shift towards the church wall so we are not facing them. Nobody answers them.
Somebody films faces and posts them	Almost certain	High, for four of us	No-camera area behind the banner, named in the listing. Stewards face our own people. Danny logs the time and a description.
Somebody walks home alone and is followed	Possible	High	Everyone leaves in threes. Two stewards walk the route to the station at the end and keep the vests on.
Fifteen come, not sixty	Possible	Low, if we plan it	We move to the church steps, drop the speeches, read the names instead. It goes ahead either way.
A speaker says something we cannot defend	Possible	High	Two speakers only. Both send their text to Naomi by 12 March. Naomi holds the microphone.
Somebody is unwell in the cold	Likely at sixty people	Low	Sara has the kit, a folding chair and the address of the late pharmacy. Sara holds no other job.
A journalist asks about Israel	Likely	Medium	Danny only. One sentence on what the vigil is for, then the names. Everybody else points at Danny.
Somebody arrives drunk and wanting a fight	Possible	Medium	Nobody engages. Stewards move our people. Naomi decides whether to end it.
Heavy rain	Likely in March	Low	Under the arcade, no amplification. Decided Saturday, messaged that night.
A participant is detained	Unlikely	High	Naomi notes the time, the name and which officers. Nobody crowds it. Ring Naomi, not the police.

On that last row, decide two things before the day. Who holds the phone, so that a steward watching somebody put in a van knows one number and not three. And whether anybody has arranged legal support in advance, which is a real thing some organisations offer and which most first events do not have. If you have not, say so in the plan rather than leaving a blank: the person detained has whatever right to legal advice the law where you are gives them, and your job on the pavement is to record the time, the name and the officers, and to reach their family. Not to intervene.

Ten rows, about forty minutes. Look at what the fourth column holds. A person’s name, and a thing that person does. Not one row says monitor or be aware.

The grid, blank

What could go wrong	How likely	How bad, and for whom	What we will do, decided now
Start with the thing nobody wants to raise in a planning meeting	Likely, possible or unlikely	Name the person it lands on, not the event	A name, and what that person does. No name means undecided

Nine or ten rows is plenty. Weather and turnout are on everybody’s list already. The four below are the ones that get skipped.

This grid is not a risk assessment form. A council hands you its own form, and a venue asks for a certificate of insurance. Both are separate objects from the thinking you have just done. Turning these four columns into what they want is set out in what the venue asks for, which is written for England and Wales.

The four rows that belong to us

A counter-protest. Not the same thing as one hostile person. It arrives with its own stewards, its own cameras and a plan. Decide two things now: how far you will move to make distance, and who rings the police contact beforehand to ask where the other group will be held. The UN guidance on peaceful assembly treats a counter-assembly as something the authorities keep apart from yours, rather than a reason to move or cancel yours. Know that before you are asked to shift.

Cameras on faces. Somebody will film your participants, and on this subject some of that footage exists to attach a name to a face. Decide the rule now and publish it with the date. A workable one has four parts. Photography of the crowd from the front is expected. There is a marked position where nobody is photographed. Your own organisers publish no close-up of an identifiable person without asking. And one named photographer is visible. Fix the position on the site walk, not on the day. The steward’s procedure for the moment it happens is in running the day.

The walk home. The site is stewarded and the station is not. Anybody in a kippah, a Magen David or a badge is identifiable for the whole journey, and alone at the point your stewards have gone. Decide now that nobody leaves on their own, that two stewards walk the route at the end, and that the vests stay on until the last group has left.

The building. If your event is at, beside or ending at a synagogue, a school or a community centre, that building already has a security arrangement and somebody responsible for it. They can say no. Ring them before you fix the date.

Who has to be told, and when

Five questions. Every one is answerable by somebody who goes and asks, and the answers differ by country, so this page gives none of them.

1. Who is responsible for security at any Jewish building involved, and have they agreed the date rather than only heard about it?
2. Is there a body where you live that gives security advice and trained volunteers to Jewish communal events? Does it cover events run by individuals as well as by member organisations, and how much notice does it want? Ask before you fix the date, because sometimes that answer decides the date.
3. Does your country require notice to police for a moving event, and how many days? A static gathering often requires none. In the UN guidance a requirement to notify is not a requirement to ask permission, and that distinction is worth holding on to.
4. Who is the named police contact, and will they say where a counter-protest will be kept?
5. Who told you each of the above, and when? Write both down. These answers go stale and the person who gave them moves on.

One person who can stop it

One person, named, who can change the route, cut it short or call it off. Everybody with a role knows who that is before they arrive.

The situations that go badly are the ones where a decision was needed in ninety seconds and nobody knew whose it was. Somebody speaking, leading chants or being interviewed cannot make that decision. Keep the lead off the microphone.

Name a deputy, and name the moment the deputy takes over.

The card in the pocket

Everybody with a role carries a card: their name, their job, the number of the person above them, and the meeting point if the group is separated.

On paper as well as in a phone. Batteries die and data stops working in a crowd where several hundred people are all using it in one place.

Announce the ending with the beginning

More trouble at public events happens in the last twenty minutes and the hour afterwards than during the event itself. The crowd thins, the stewards relax, the confident people go first and the ones on their own go last.

So publish the finish time alongside the start time. Say from the front how people are leaving and which way. Keep stewards in place until the site is clear, not until the speeches end.

Before you post the date

Fill in the blanks132 words

Set-up first, tonight. Rule the four columns and write three rows. The three you are avoiding.

If we have a date in mind, then I will ring the building’s security contact and the community security body before anybody publicises it.

If the grid is finished, then I will write the camera rule into the announcement itself, in the same paragraph as the time and the place.

If somebody says a row is unlikely, then I will still make them fill in the fourth column, because unlikely is not a plan.

And the obstacle to expect is this feeling excessive for sixty people in a square. If I start thinking that, then I will do the four rows above and stop. Those four are the ones that were going to cost somebody something.