Event Security & Crowd Management

Brain Higgins speaks about security in open air crowded events. [CBS Evening News, 2025]

Brian Higgins knows a thing or two about safety and large scale events. During the 2014 Superbowl, Higgins was Chief of Police for Bergen Country. "There are going to be different elements from tactical elements to bomb technicians, to canine units all the way out to the traffic..." [WNBC-TV & TODAY in NY, 2025]

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office says there are “numerous wounded victims” after police were called for an active shooter. … Brian Higgins, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said summer heat, large social gatherings and alcohol consumption typically fuel a seasonal increase in violence.
“This is to be expected,” said Higgins, a former police chief for Bergen County, New Jersey. “Is it worse than other years? That remains to be seen.” [Associated Press, 2024]

Brian Higgins, a former chief of the Bergen County Police Department and current professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, described the dangers of such large crowds, saying he would "rather see a few people bothered with this than people get hurt. Erring on the side of caution was the better way to go." He emphasized the dangers that come with massive, unexpected crowds, such as crushing injuries or suffocation, saying, "If they're not handled well, they could get seriously out of control.""She's relatively new; she's an influencer; this is the first event that's like this. Maybe they're inexperienced," Higgins continued, adding that "to her credit," Matter did draw a bigger crowd than expected. [northjersey.com, 2025]

Election-related violence, like the January 6th insurrection, often stems from impromptu unrest according to Brian Higgins, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. … Higgins, a former police chief for New Jersey’s Bergen County, says law enforcement operate on a crowd management/crowd control binary when preventing political unrest. Crowd management focuses on gauging the “tenor of the crowd” even when totally peaceful. [New York Amsterdam News, 2024]

Brian Higgins, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired chief of the Bergen County Police Department in New Jersey, said if police seized and kept the phones without a warrant, it would generally be legally problematic.
“Unless they had a warrant for it or some other justification, I don’t know how they could do that,” Higgins said. “It doesn’t seem like normal investigative” procedure.
If police confiscate personal items during an arrest, generally they must be returned after the person is released from custody, legal experts have told Newsday, unless deemed evidence in a criminal case or proceeds of a crime. The protesters were charged with disorderly conduct, which is a noncriminal offense. [Newsday, 2024]

"There is an uptick in terrorism related threats..that's another element, when you bring in people from other countries there has to be some vetting...all individuals have to be screened as well...."It's at the highest level. Fans should know that that's a positive....." [News12 NJ, 2025]

But people familiar with National Guard deployments say those expectations are unrealistic, given the challenge of pulling up part-time soldiers from across the state and the unpredictability of the unfolding crisis.

“There was this real thought that these riots would peter out,” said Brian Higgins, a former police chief and veteran of the Air National Guard, who now lectures on emergency planning at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

“I don’t know that you could really find that he did anything wrong. It’s always easier to, you know, Monday morning quarterback.” [Wall Sheet Journal, 2024]