Whether you run an institution open to the public or are organising an event or demonstration, regulations impose obligations on you to ensure the safety of visitors.
Faced with so many risks, the golden rule is to make it easy and safe for the public to evacuate and to facilitate the intervention of the emergency services. If you fail to do this, you may be liable to civil or criminal prosecution.
To avoid a dramatic situation, you must first of all be aware of and anticipate the potential risks. You must also comply with the rules in force, depending in particular on the capacity and use of your premises.
Finally, you need to put in place the conditions to ensure optimum evacuation and improved accessibility for emergency services.
Adopting a people counting solution meets these two objectives. Find out how it can help ensure the safety of your site or event.
What are the safety rules to be observed?
Safety rules for institutions open to the public (ERP)
The term ‘institution open to the public’ covers all buildings, premises and enclosures to which outsiders are admitted. Access may be free or restricted, paid or free.
For example, shops, museums, cinemas, libraries and theatres are all public access establishments. Amusement parks, even outdoor ones, are also institutions open to the public.
In terms of safety, these establishments are subject to general provisions:
put in place safety and fire and panic-fighting equipment
limit the risks and enable the public to evacuate quickly and safely in the event of a disaster, thanks to measures that facilitate the action of emergency services.
In practice, the operational implementation of safety rules depends on the category and type of institution:
The category depends on the capacity of the premises
The type according to the nature of their operation
The category indicates the number of people permitted in the institution (including employees). The type specifies the number of people admitted in accordance with the specific provisions for each type of institution.
In other words, these are attendance limits that must be respected to facilitate evacuation and access by emergency services in the event of risk. In the event of non-compliance, the operator may be held civilly and criminally liable.
Safety rules for public events
Organisers of sporting, cultural and artistic events on the public highway must also comply with safety rules.
For major events (involving more than 5,000 participants), the organisers must inform the prefect at least 2 months before the event is due to take place. They send a safety file to the prefecture and the mayor.
The prefecture undertakes prior consultation to coordinate emergency and safety resources with all those involved.
Smaller events are subject to specific rules depending on their nature.
In all cases, the organisers must:
Ensure the implementation of safety and rescue measures for participants and assume legal liability
Assess the threats in conjunction with government departments
Identify the site's vulnerabilities
Test the effectiveness of safety and security plans prior to the event
Here again, the main issues are the ability to evacuate the site quickly in the event of a risk and accessibility for the emergency services.
What are the best practices for ensuring the safety of a venue?
Identifying potential risks
Originally, the safety regulations for public buildings were primarily designed to cover the risks of fire and panic (decree of 25 June 1980).
From this point of view, the general provisions cover the construction of the building, interior installations and fittings, signage and the provision of a defibrillator and a safety register, as well as fire-fighting resources.
Since then, new forms of risk have emerged, forcing operators of public spaces and event organisers to prepare for other situations. In addition to the risks of incidents (fire, gas leaks, etc.), there are now ..:
risks of attack and intrusion
Health risks: in the event of an epidemic.
Facilitating evacuation and the organisation of emergency services
Incident risks and terrorist risks call for the same overall response: facilitating the evacuation of people on site and facilitating the access, organisation and effectiveness of emergency services.
In this context, the effectiveness of the emergency services depends on knowing the situation inside the building. Knowing the number of people present and their position on the site is an asset when it comes to organising police, fire and rescue operations.
Health risks, in particular the setting of capacities according to the type of institution or event, require operators to havereliable people counting tools.
In this case, the operator must be able to prove the number of people present in real time. This cannot be based on entries alone, as people may have left in the meantime.
Monitor and be alerted to your safety capacity
It's better to be safe than sorry by monitoring instantaneous data on the occupancy of your spaces in real time.
By measuring your safety capacity, you can be alerted as soon as it reaches a certain level.
Why adopt a people counting solution to meet your security challenges?
What is a people counting solution?
People counting is a response to the safety challenges facing public buildings. It provides real-time information on the number of people using different areas of a facility. It involves fitting your premises with sensors that count the number of visitors present in your areas.
By counting the number of visitors entering and leaving your premises in real time and calculating the occupancy rate of your areas, you have an overall view of your institution's capacity.
In the event of an incident or attack, this knowledge helps you to inform the emergency services so that they can intervene more quickly and effectively. Where there is a health risk, a people counting solution with a capacity overrun alert function automates checks on the number of people in your premises.
For large events (events, concerts, festivals, etc.) attended by a large number of visitors, the use of a solution helps organisers to gauge the number of police officers or ambulances to be deployed in the event of a problem.
Generally speaking, a people counting solution like Affluences helps you to meet your security obligations. To avoid overstaffing, you can use the relevant data to take preventive action, such as extending opening hours, informing visitors about the number of visitors, providing extra staff during busy periods or directing them to the areas with the highest footfall, etc.
Examples of how the Affluences people counting solution is used
In 2017, a terrorist attack was carried out against Operation Sentinel soldiers at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. The Affluences solution, installed in this part of the building, was used to indicate the number of people in the space at the time of the attack to justify compliance with the security capacity.
Another case in point: in 2018, a gas leak in the street of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum meant that the premises had to be evacuated. To facilitate the evacuation, the fire brigade needed to know quickly the total number of visitors.
Unfortunately, the museum was unable to provide them with an exact figure, as it only knew the number of people who had entered the museum but not the number who had left. Following this event, the museum decided to equip itself with Affluences' people counting solution in order to guarantee and reinforce visitor safety in the event of incidents, by obtaining accurate attendance data in real time.
Are you an ERP operator or event organiser? Are the safety of your visitors a key concern for you?
As risks evolve, you need to make it easier for visitors to evacuate in the event of an incident, and to facilitate access for emergency services. Adopting a people-counting solution like Affluences not only helps you to avoid the worst in the event of an incident or attack, but also, upstream, to limit the risks through increased real-time knowledge of the number of people using your facilities.
Would you like to find out more about our people counting solution? Contact our team for a full demonstration.