Agent-Based Simulations of Pedestrian Movement for Site Security: U. S. Secret Service’s Current Capabilities and Next Steps

The U. S. Secret Service (USSS) is responsible for protecting dignitaries, most notably the President of the U.S. This encompasses the Inauguration, the two national nominating conventions, and some other large public events. In recent years, USSS has been directed to expand its functions to include crowd safety at such events. Consequently, USSS continues to develop substantial modeling and simulation capabilities for event planning and personnel training. Recent projects are a stadium/arena Evacuation Planning Tool (EPT), now being marketed by its developer to a number of private stadium management organizations, and Site Security Planning Tool (SSPT), a smaller-scale, video game based simulator for planning and training. Next steps include the incorporation of more realistic crowd behaviors, responses to ongoing events such as toxic plumes or secondary attacks, and continuing movement toward combining large-scale planning, smaller-scale training, and real-time situation monitoring into a single integrated model and interface.