THE CROWD MACHINE: LEVERAGING EMERGENT CROWD BEHAVIOR IN POLICY AND RESPONSE

All across the country, officials and planners of the first-responder community plan for events of various types, yet their plans do not adequately account for crowd behavior when the event is interrupted by an act of violence that turns into a mass-casualty incident, or a “focus event.” This research contests early crowd psychology studies and presents the contemporary social identity theory, elaborated social identity model, and emergence model as better lenses for crowd behavior in responding to a focus event. Case studies of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting are used to analyze crowds that experienced focus events through the perspective of complex adaptive systems. A new framework that incorporates the elements of stress, panic, chaos, and priming is then presented to assist officials and planners with planning for crowds experiencing a focus event, with the aim of leveraging crowd emergence. The new framework presented in this research leads to a set of actionable recommendations for policymakers and planners. Ultimately, this thesis challenges officials and planners of the first-responder community to evaluate crowds as complex adaptive systems and explore the ability to leverage crowds for a more effective response. Civilian, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Approved for public release. distribution is unlimited