Happy snaps

May 3, 2013 at 9:48 pm | Posted in Security | 2 Comments
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Ever keen to improve teen party safety, my team and I have been trying innovative solutions to the gatecrasher plague.

And boy, are we onto a winner!

Fixed cameras are proving to be a cheap, easy yet amazingly effective deterrent for unwanted guests.

Just take a look …

Holding the line

How to form an orderly Kew.

Here we have a 120-guest 18th birthday in Melbourne’s east.

The week before, my grapevine told me a notoriously violent gang was going to hit this party and cause mayhem.

So I advised the host to put the word out on Facebook that this event would be under surveillance.

We also informed Police who, as ever, were very proactive and helpful.

If you look closely, you can see me on the right telling the nice Constable that (for once!) the party was gatecrasher free.

Taking the ‘gate’ out of ‘gatecrasher’

Surprise!

Don’t be scared, this is our Brian – one of the good guys.

He’s inside the party perimeter.

Having checked the park opposite, he’s ensuring no gatecrashers hide behind the fence or burst through the gate to join him.

Imagine their surprise if they’re stupid enough to try!

This was another 18th birthday party, this time for 160 guests.

18 months earlier, an event at this address had been overrun by gatecrashers.

So we informed legitimate guests as they entered to spread the word that the external area of this venue was being recorded.

We pointed our camera at the weak spot the gatecrashers had used last time – a gate leading to a bushy park.

Problem solved!

Modern times

Both these images show the benefits of a fixed camera.

While both events fully expected gatecrashers, not a single one turned up.

Today’s teens are so wired into technology, you need only breathe a word of interest and it runs straight through their world.

If you can’t ‘afford’ professional security, at least get a camera. They cost a few hundred bucks and look like this:

Like a deer in headlights.
(But much better for the deer.)

And if you’re a wannabe gatecrasher keen to wreck an event, my expert crew and I have just one word for you:

…

SMILE!

:)

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

Drugged up

March 13, 2013 at 7:34 pm | Posted in Security | 3 Comments
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A very bad trip down memory lane.

A very bad trip down memory lane.

If you thought bad acid went out with Woodstock, think again. Today’s LSD is called ‘Psy acid’ and your teenager may be on it.

This news story backs up what my staff and I are dealing with at the coal face: hard drugs are filtering into teen events.

I’m very concerned, and I want parents to understand what’s readily available on the party scene.

Acid test

While pills are hard to detect, paper acid tabs are even harder. Hardest of all is liquid acid.

Kids bring this nearly odourless fluid to parties in bottles of perfume or mouthwash. It’s so potent, you needn’t drink it. Simply rubbing it onto skin triggers absorption and effect.

I find this particularly frightening.

Party poppers

I’ve also heard from party scene teens that some revellers are buying empty medicine capsules from health shops.

They then mix chopped psychotropic ‘magic’ mushrooms with ground coffee beans to make their own tablets.

Creeping menace

While working a recent 18th birthday with 150+ guests, I was alarmed at the amount of drug activity creeping into what used to be a fairly innocent celebration.

While hard drugs are far more difficult to detect than alcohol, we had warning signs at the start of the night.

These may prove useful if you’re planning a party.

Early warnings

  1. An unusually high percentage of teenagers had entered the party without alcohol. It turned out they were into other substances.
  2. The kids who weren’t drinking seemed agitated and their pupils were dilated.
  3. There was unusual activity around the toilets. This included milling, loitering, pacing, making phone calls and drinking water – all with a stressed or concerned expression.
  4. When the music started, some teens were extremely hyperactive on the dance floor. Their movements were strange and highly exaggerated. While some tottered around hugging strangers, many danced alone in their altered world.
  5. The DJ and several parents reported hearing conversations about buying pills.

Raw deal

Thoroughly alerted, my team and I swung into action. When I got the dealer’s name, I recognised it as he was actually on the guest list.

We stopped him from entering the party when we got a look at his enormous pupils. He was very agitated and quickly became aggressive – shouting and abusing parents and staff.

I called the police and tried to reason with this increasingly erratic youth. But when they arrived, he fled straight across a busy highway – narrowly escaping death.

As far as I know, he’s still out there.

Swabs or dogs?

Short of doing forensics or having a sniffer dog at your party, the options to keep drugs out are limited.

The most practical and affordable solution is to have experienced security staff working in cooperation with a diligent parent team to observe any unusual activity.

If you don’t, your special event may well end up in the toilet.

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

Alcohol is flooding our health system

January 27, 2013 at 12:07 am | Posted in Security | 2 Comments
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iStock_000012752866XSmall

WA’s new party laws won’t prevent this.

Here’s a lovely article that I read with interest, then dismay: Drunk callouts swamp ambos.

Did you know that Western Australia’s stretched ambulance crews are treating ten drunks a day?!

I find this and other figures sobering.

What a pity other people don’t!

Lie of the land

In WA, more than seven teenagers a week are taken to hospital for intoxication.

Unfortunately, the State’s new reactive party legislation will not prevent alcohol abuse at teen and young adult events.

Whether these parties have supplied or BYO alcohol, it must be managed and served properly.

The only way parents can ensure this is to have an alcohol management plan that includes Responsible Serving of Alcohol.

If they don’t, more and more children will be carted off to hospital – or worse.

Shame game

Parents who collect their intoxicated son or daughter from a party should ask (or be asked) a serious question:

How did they allow this to happen to their child?

I have first-hand experience of parents who’ve:

  • Picked up their unconscious child from a party.
  • Detoured to a hospital to get their kid’s stomach pumped.
  • Collected a kid from hospital who was rushed by ambulance from a party.
  • Sent the party host the ambulance and/or hospital bill!

Seriously: does this look like a recipe for ‘good times’ to you?

Parental guidance

It’s really quite simple: adults hosting events must be made accountable

Until we have a party management system that requires parents to apply for a permit that ensures they fully discharge their duty of care, kids will continue to end up in hospitals.

And coffins.

So what will it take?

Must we wait until your family is torn apart by (totally preventable) injury and loss?

The answer is right in front of you.

Please read this and think about it!

:|

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

Midnight son

December 27, 2012 at 8:14 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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rich parents supply alcohol to children resulting in sex and photos

WAKE. UP!

Kids.

They grow up so fast!

Like to know how fast?

A 24-year-old drives his kid brother to a girl’s twelfth birthday.

The party’s in the well-heeled Melbourne suburb of Brighton.

When the man returns to collect his brother several hours later, he sees pre-teens (i.e. children) staggering round the front yard, vomiting profusely on the hydrangeas.

His young brother gets into the car.

When quizzed by his older sibling, the boy reports that it was the birthday girl’s parents who supplied the (copious) alcohol at this party.

The boy goes on to say that he used his mobile phone to photograph 12-year-old guests having oral and penetrative sex at various concealed locations around the multi-million-dollar property.

Nor was he the sole happy snapper.

There’s every chance these images will end up online.

And stay there.

Forever.

This tawdry tale illustrates three points I’ve been making for years:

  • Parents holding events for young people are utterly failing to show any duty of care.
  • One can only hope this sexual activity was consensual. Far too often it is not.
  • Alcohol leads to violence, injury and death. How many more kids must be killed at these parties before stupid parents realise it’s unacceptable to just let it happen?

Happy New Year?

Not unless we change our tune!

:|

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

Unhappy Halloween

November 2, 2012 at 10:30 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
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The face of a party without a plan.

While Western Australia is in election mode, teen parties continue to cause havoc in the community – creating nights more terrifying than any Halloween.

Yet this horror is well within our power to control.

An ounce of prevention …

I’ve always believed a proactive, preventative solution is far better than a passive reaction.

To this end, my proactive legislative solution will ensure parents have the right plans in place, i.e.:

  • Ensure each venue is safe and suitable for a party.
  • Notify police in advance.
  • Have a ratio of 1 responsible adult to every 20 kids.
  • Ensure professional security staff are in place. By this, I don’t mean Uncle Bert or some steroid-pumping neighbour with a security licence.  I mean an expert company with professional liability cover.
  • Ensure all alcohol is managed.

Most teen parties featured in the media have come unstuck due to alcohol being brought onto the property and not managed.

While gatecrashers definitely play a part in causing mayhem, parties with no alcohol control are doomed before they even start.

The bottom line is that no plan invariably equals disaster.

If we fail to control alcohol, the mess these parties make will go on and on – and escalate.

Unless we do something about it.

Permission to party

If more parents were made aware of the links described above, and the reasons for having a party permit system, I believe they’d understand and support the need to apply for a permit to plan, hold and manage these events.

After all, what caring, reasonable parent would not want to ensure their child (and every teen guest) is safe within their party?!

And what kind of parent would not want these children to get home safely after their event?

So that’s the carrot.

Now for the stick.

Courting disaster

If parents aren’t motivated by love, perhaps they’ll respond to fear.

According to this court ruling, parents have been warned they’re at risk of legal action if they fail to properly supervise other people’s children.

This could easily relate to teen parties.

Think about this for a second …

Are you prepared to take such an enormous risk for the sake of your event?

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

A peek at your destiny

October 15, 2012 at 12:57 am | Posted in Security | Leave a comment
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Show me your venue and I’ll predict the fate of your event.

There are some things you just don’t want to spend money on.

Insurance, dental work and red-light camera fines spring to mind.

These expenses sure ain’t fun, but failing to cover them can cost you a whole lot more down the track.

Unfortunately, these days, security for your party is another ‘unfun-but-necessary’ purchase.

I know you’d much rather spend your hard-earned cash on a thousand other things.

I also know money’s tight for a lot of people now.

So I’m going to make it very very easy for you to protect yourself, your family, your guests, your home and your community.

How?

By offering an expert, comprehensive pre-party assessment for a mere $100 plus GST.

Just try. You don’t have to buy.

I’ve spoken about pre-party assessments here, here, here, here and here.

Why do I keep mentioning these? Because a pre-party assessment can solve more dramas before they happen than a hundred security staff could deal with on the day.

By planning ahead, you save money and we save lives, limbs and property.

Even if you don’t want to spend another cent on securing your event, you owe it to a lot of people to at least get your venue sussed and your party planned.

And now you can do it with no obligation of actually booking any security.

Plan to win.

When you get me round for a pre-party assessment, I will:

  • Spot and flag the physical risks of your venue and grounds.
  • Draft an Alcohol Management Plan.
  • Explain how to optimise your guest list.
  • Recommend the appropriate guest-to-parent ratio (and explain exactly why).
  • Outline a Transport Plan to get your guests home in one piece after your event.

Once I’ve done this all for you, we can part without another dollar changing hands.

Too good to be true?

So how on Earth can I afford to give you my time, travel and expertise for a mere hundred bucks?

Because so many of the people I do this for realise the deadly danger of not correcting issues before a party goes to hell.

If, on the other hand, you reckon you can handle the whole shooting match yourself, at least we’ll both know that you were warned.

If you doubt my sincerity, read my proposal or check my testimonials.

Then drop me a line.

I warmly welcome your inquiry:

deal or no deal!

:)

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

Why each parent should have 20 kids

July 30, 2012 at 5:10 am | Posted in Security | Leave a comment
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safe teen parties depend on a sensible child to adult ratio

Less really is more.

As teen parties get bigger, riskier and more elaborate, host parents are finding there’s extra help at hand: other parents and responsible (i.e. mature, sober) adults.

This is good news, as parents planning teen events need all the help they can get.

They also need to realise some really important points.

Key among these is the ratio of parents to kids.

Numbers game

If you work on 1 parent for every 15-20 kids, you take a massive step in the right direction.

This manageable ratio means you can task parents to areas that invariably cause problems, like:

  • Monitor toilets and bathrooms to prevent these areas being trashed.
  • Observe bedrooms to discourage unwanted activity.
  • Manage the alcohol area for reasons too important and numerous to list!
  • Patrol fences and other perimeter areas to thwart gatecrashers.

On the list

Another vital thing is to ensure you have the guest list at least 3 days before the event and DO NOT allow any more names to be added.

As the host parent, it’s up to YOU to provide a safe environment for the kids and security staff who come to your home or other venue.

If you tell me you’re having 100 kids, I’ll tell you to have 2 crowd control professionals and 5 parents.

I know this for a fact, because I’ve kept more than 700 teen events incident free.

Some host parents agree to my recommendation.

But when my staff and I arrive at their event, we often find 140 kids and only 2 parents.

This not only infuriates me, it puts everyone in and around the party in danger.

Here’s how.

Eight steps to chaos

  1. You can NOT manage a bar with just two parents.
  2. Your two security staff (if you’re wise enough to book them) will have their hands full securing your front door, enforcing your guest list and searching for drugs and alcohol.
  3. With no adults available to check your perimeter, unwanted guests will stream over the back fence like rodents.
  4. People will start vomiting on couches and behind doors.
  5. Fights will start to simmer all over the place.
  6. The situation will become volatile, needing just a small push to become an all-in brawl.
  7. With no parents to stop them, your back-door gatecrashes will start trashing your home.
  8. With the adults now totally outnumbered, you’ll then blame me and my staff for not entering your home to sort out your self-made disaster (and cop a bottle in the head for our trouble).

Get the picture?

I sure hope so, as I’m NOT making this up.

Your move

I can’t force you to do the right thing.

As a ‘grown-up’, you’re free to make your own mistakes.

But if you do, you may not only harm yourself, your kids, your possessions and your home.

You may also risk the lives of others –  along with the chronic and crippling legal, financial and moral consequences of your arrogance, carelessness and stupidity.

So by all means do your own thing, if you must.

But when all hell breaks loose at your event, don’t you dare try to pass the buck.

KNOW THAT THE ONLY ONE TO BLAME IS YOU!

If, on the other hand, you decide to take a reasonable and responsible approach to hosting a teen party, read my positive proposal for change.

It’s all there.

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

It’s NO ‘accident’!

July 16, 2012 at 7:34 am | Posted in Security | 2 Comments
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Youth + Intoxication = Disaster.

In my view, an accident is something you have no control over.

If, for instance:

  1. you’re driving a car;
  2. a large spider drops on you from behind the sun visor and
  3. you crash into a tree,

that’s an accident.

If, on the other hand:

  1. you’re rushing and driving at speed;
  2. you tailgate the car in front of you and
  3. you rear-end them when they brake,

that’s no accident.

That’s plain carelessness.

Media scrum

Sadly, the tragedies listed below were no accident.

Had proper planning been in place, these teen celebrations would have been spared the associated injury and death:

When is enough enough?!

To protect our children from serious injury and death, parents wanting to hold a teen event must:

  1. Apply for a party permit.
  2. Have a proper party plan in place.
  3. Discharge their duty of care to guests and the community before, during and after the event.

But until we introduce legislation to ensure parents do these things, we’re doomed to witness yet more carnage.

Parents must realise it isn’t just about their child’s celebration. Failing to plan an event can all-too-easily lead to the planning of funerals.

As a parent of a teenager myself, I beg you to act responsibly and support my positive proposal for change.

Unless, of course, your child’s happiness and welfare mean nothing to you.

In which case our society is surely lost.

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

100 is enough!

June 28, 2012 at 5:36 am | Posted in Security | 1 Comment
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safe teen party security

Keep it to close friends …

As our communities struggle to cope with the rise of teen parties, we now have a popularity contest:

100 guests (or more) is the new way to be cool and hip!

Yes, teen parties are getting bigger. I’m now regularly speaking to parents planning 150+ guest events for kids as young as 14!

Yesterday I spoke with a father planning a 200-guest 18th. I naturally assumed this was a double birthday.

Wrong! His daughter is just really really popular.

Whatever happened to ‘one guest for each year of your life?!’

Weekend warriors

Last weekend I did two parties. One was for a 16-year-old (140 kids). The other for an 18-year-old (150 kids).

As usual, the ‘dry’16th in a lovely, up-market, bayside suburb proved the more eventful and difficult to handle.

Money sure doesn’t buy class – especially with events this big. Instead, you need 3 professional security staff and a ratio of 1 (sober, responsible) parent to every 10 kids.

This is extremely important. While you can get away with a ratio of 1:20 in smaller events, big parties are much greater than the sum of their parts.

Why security?

Parents and security, working in concert, are absolutely vital. Among their many responsibilities, they must:

  • Staff every door, window and other entry and point. (Gatecrashers are like rats; they can get in anywhere.)
  • Cloak all bags. (Some are the size of suitcases: 60% are filled with alcohol.)
  • Detect kids smoking cannabis in toilets. (Yes, Mum and Dad, your darling babies really do use drugs.)
  • Patrol grounds and move on kids drinking in bushes and dark spots.
  • Catch and evict kids trying to enter under false names.

As you do all this, you can expect to see teens swearing and abusing parents, neighbours, security staff, police, passers by and each other.

Teens in groups with a few drinks on board believe they’re invincible and often want to ‘take on’ adults en masse.

Yet every time I witness this outside a venue, the parents of the mob are nowhere to be seen.

Solution

If you’re a parent wishing for a safer (more fun, less litigious) event, here’s what to do:

  1. Keep guest numbers below a manageable 100.
  2. Even if it’s an alcohol-free event, expect most kids to bring booze in bags and cloak them accordingly.
  3. Expect half the guests to ‘pre-load’ on grog before they rock up. If you see them gathering in groups or loitering under trees outside your venue, that’s what they’re doing.
  4. Expect gatecrashers. And fear them. A crowd of drunk boys has no respect for adults – quite the opposite. So think twice about approaching them, as they’ll likely attack you as an authority figure.

Lastly, why does any child under 18 even need a boozy party?

Alcohol-fuelled celebrations for minors are not mandatory.

Go roller-skating.

Go cart racing.

Go to a movie.

Do whatever else it takes to talk your child out of the worst decision they may ever make.

And if you think I write this blog just to flog my security business, think again.

I have no desire see your precious teen paralytic, assaulted and face-down in dog shit.

Nor should you.

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

Death rattle

June 12, 2012 at 7:05 am | Posted in Security | Leave a comment
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safe teen party

Our very own killing fields.

What’s up, Western Australia?!

From what we’ve read these last few months, you really are dying to have fun.

Since the start of March, 40 of your teen parties have hit the media for appalling reasons.

In case you’ve been lying drunk in a ditch or king-hit by a bottle, here’s a fool’s guide to the most serious incidents:

25 March. Teen in coma. Police officer kicked unconscious.

1 April. Guest in hospital with serious head injuries from gatecrasher missiles.

6 May. Four teens smashed, slashed and robbed by 30 partygoers.

8 June. Police cars damaged in party violence.

9 June. Machete-wielding thugs fracture teen’s skull and smash property.

These totally preventable situations are injuring your kids, destroying your communities and costing you (and the rest of us!) a fortune in wasted taxes.

When will we see positive action?

How many more children must be maimed to create change in your State?

Are we Australia?

Or Syria?

Parents must be accountable for these events.

As things stand, they don’t need any kind of plan or permit to throw a party for their child.

If your kid were involved in one of the traumas listed above, would you want justice?

If you hold a party that goes wrong, do you really think you’ll avoid a criminal investigation and/or civil suit?

Checking your sickening stats, it’s clear it’s only a matter of time till WA mourns its next dead reveller.

Instead of praying it’s not your child, or hoping for change, why not be the change you want to see?

We need legislative reform. It’s not impossible. It’s not even hard. Here’s the plan. Read it!

Can’t you see the time has come to get with the program?

Or will it take that knock at your door to rouse you from your stupor?

It’s your baby.

Literally.

So show some guts.

And maturity.

Make the call.

Before it’s too late.

Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.

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