It doesn’t take special software or statistical analysis to know this, but what reporting tools can help him with is in determining where the trouble spots are likely to flare up and what entry points illegal drugs might be coming from. With 16,500 fans at the Rexall Centre, he can use all the help he can get.

Suffern, major event security manager for Northlands, the body that manages five entertainment and sports venues in Edmonton, knows he’ll have more activity going on in the stands when the Flames are in town — more than any other team — and staffs his security team accordingly for those nights.

Knowing exactly where in the building he needs to place personnel has become easier thanks in part to incident reporting and investigation management software from Edmonton-based PPM 2000, which was put in place two years ago. The system is a centrally managed web services application that can be updated and maintained across multiple sites — critical for an organization like Northlands.

Northlands chose the Perspective Premium edition, and Suffern says it’s proven to be a major improvement on what the organization had been using to document incidents — a paper and pen system that didn’t really allow for detailed analysis.

“You can imagine how difficult that was if you had to search it,” says Suffern. “Basically people would go through it and collect what they could. We found it really onerous.”

For example, during an Edmonton Oilers game any fan eviction or medical incident was typically recorded on paper copy and put into a file.

“Basically, we wanted to identify who was involved in incidents and what types of incidents we were dealing with. Once we started collecting it in Perspective we could identify the types of incidents and severity and locations, which was critical — whether it was first, second or third period of a game. People had an idea of when things were happening, but didn’t have the exact statistical information to prove it.”

Now Suffern can see which door sets in the building were the location for entry of drugs or alcohol and with which particular teams.

“Everyone had an idea of where incidents were generally happening, but it was quite shocking when you started getting into the data to find out what teams would be an issue in terms of the fan base,” he says.

Having those kinds of event statistics helps Northlands determine what to budget for door security for particular games at the Rexall Centre, and it helps with concerts and other events at its other properties.

Across its five buildings, Northlands runs more than 2,500 events a year attended by over four million visitors. They include concerts; trade shows; sporting events like NHL hockey and thoroughbred and harness racing; gaming; and agriculture events such as the Canadian Finals Rodeo.

Suffern was familiar with Perspective in previous security positions in the health-care sector. He joined Northlands just as Perspective was rolling out at the organization. Fulltime staff have access to the system, while part-time employees still record events to paper and their supervisors record it into the system to maintain.
“It’s a good way to keep the information clean,” says Suffern.

Suffern pulls information from each event which is forwarded to police and other groups.

On game night, there are 30 security staff, 15 city police and medics and volunteers. Northlands averages about seven to 10 incidents per hockey game ranging from the discovery of outside alcohol or drugs and two or three intoxication or fan behaviour issues. That can range from someone who refuses to follow staff direction to pounding on the glass during the game. The total number of fan behaviour issues all depends on the night.
“It really depends on whether it’s a long weekend, the team the Oilers are playing, how well it’s doing or how poorly. Ultimately that’s how the program helped us clear through a lot of that and you can get more predictive in your analysis,” he says.