Keeping Crowded Places Safe

Webinar for Volunteering New Zealand members, no cost.

Community organisers are among those who have a role to play in keeping crowded places safe, and in this free webinar, you will learn how to protect your organisation and the public.

After the tragic shootings in the Christchurch Mosques on 15 March 2019, the Royal Commission recommended that ‘Everyone has a role to play in keeping crowded places safe, whether they are government officials, owners and operators of crowded places, community organisers or members of the public. Making crowded places safe from attack is consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi)’.

This live webinar, run by the Security Institute of New Zealand, will include:

• Awareness of the strategy to Protect our Crowded Places from Attack
• Learn how to use a self-assessment tool to assess your events and keep them safe

“While this is not a conversation we want to have, it is a conversation we need to have”, says Chris Lawton, Security Institute of New Zealand Chairman.

About the speaker:

The Security Institute of New Zealand is a new initiative designed to assist the people and organisations of New Zealand set up and maintain a ‘pathway to protection’.

The Chairperson of the organisation Chris Lawton has a lengthy association with counterterrorism and public safety, both in New Zealand and internationally.

“I have seen first-hand what terrorism can do to a community and the harm it causes to people. I have conducted bomb threat investigations and training in hostile environments and had to fight off machete and gun-wielding assailants while protecting people from attacks.”

The Security Institute of New Zealand (www.security-institute.org.nz) provides leadership in the response by the New Zealand security industry, providing support to those that need it such as free training to all security officers and community safety and security volunteers.

Chris is a long-serving volunteer himself, chairing the Trust Board of Community Patrols of New Zealand. He is also a member of the Crowded Places Community Advisory Group New Zealand (CAGNZ) as well as the Crowded Places Security Advisory Group (SAGNZ).