Happy snaps
May 3, 2013 at 9:48 pm | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: camera, crowd control, event, gatecrasher, Naomi Oakley, party, police, prevention, safe parties, security, surveillance, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue
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 CommentsTags: acid, alcohol, child, crowd control, drug dealer, event, kid, LSD, magic mushroom, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, police, prevention, PSY acid, safe parties, security, sniffer dog, teen, teenager, U-NOME Security
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
- An unusually high percentage of teenagers had entered the party without alcohol. It turned out they were into other substances.
- The kids who weren’t drinking seemed agitated and their pupils were dilated.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 CommentsTags: alcohol, BYO, child, death, drinking, duty of care, event, hospital, injury, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, prevention, safe parties, secondary supply, teen, teenage, teenager, tragedy, U-NOME Security, youth
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 commentTags: alcohol, child, drinking, duty of care, event, injury, kid, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, prevention, safe parties, sexual assault, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, underage drinking, underage sex, youth
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.
Why each parent should have 20 kids
July 30, 2012 at 5:10 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: alcohol, bottle, child, crowd control, drinking, duty of care, event, fight, gatecrasher, injury, kid, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue, violence, youth
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
- You can NOT manage a bar with just two parents.
- 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.
- With no adults available to check your perimeter, unwanted guests will stream over the back fence like rodents.
- People will start vomiting on couches and behind doors.
- Fights will start to simmer all over the place.
- The situation will become volatile, needing just a small push to become an all-in brawl.
- With no parents to stop them, your back-door gatecrashes will start trashing your home.
- 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 CommentsTags: accident, alcohol, car, crash, death, drinking, duty of care, event, injury, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, party, Party Plan Checklist, prevention, safe parties, teen, teenage, teenager, tragedy, U-NOME Security, youth
Youth + Intoxication = Disaster.
In my view, an accident is something you have no control over.
If, for instance:
- you’re driving a car;
- a large spider drops on you from behind the sun visor and
- you crash into a tree,
that’s an accident.
If, on the other hand:
- you’re rushing and driving at speed;
- you tailgate the car in front of you and
- 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:
- Five young men killed in high speed crash.
- Young girl killed and four injured in smash.
- Dead girl’s friends claim drink was spiked with ecstasy.
- Man stabbed in chest after house party.
- Man who died after king hit ‘wanted a fight’.
- One dead and three injured in car ‘accident’.
When is enough enough?!
To protect our children from serious injury and death, parents wanting to hold a teen event must:
- Apply for a party permit.
- Have a proper party plan in place.
- 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 CommentTags: alcohol, child, crowd control, drinking, event, fight, gatecrasher, kid, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, police, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue, violence, youth
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:
- Keep guest numbers below a manageable 100.
- Even if it’s an alcohol-free event, expect most kids to bring booze in bags and cloak them accordingly.
- 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.
- 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 commentTags: crowd control, death, drinking, duty of care, event, fight, gang, grievous bodily harm, injury, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, police, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, tragedy, U-NOME Security, violence, youth
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.
Crash tackle
May 22, 2012 at 1:51 am | Posted in Security | 1 CommentTags: alcohol, crowd control, drinking, event, Fence, fight, gatecrasher, kid, Naomi Oakley, neighbour, parent, party, police, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, U-NOME Security, venue, violence, youth
Take a seat. In the head!
Moon madness
Last Saturday night kept me and my staff very busy.
I’m not sure what the moon was doing, but every party we handled had issues. Problems that would’ve turned very ugly had security not been present
Ironically, the alcohol-free events were the most difficult. This was because gatecrashers targeted both.
You wouldn’t believe the lengths they went to! Or the stuff they tried. We had kids crawling in through toilet windows little bit bigger than a post box.
The intruders we kept at bay occupied the neighbour’s yard (lovely!) and hurled garden stakes and deck chairs over the back fence.
These missiles just missed my staff member who’d confronted two intruders that had made it over the fence. As soon as they saw her, they quickly jumped back …
… Then came back with more unwanted guests!
It was sheer luck no-one was impaled.
Remote control
The event I attended had 150 21-year-olds in a fairly remote venue.
The responsible service of alcohol by bar staff was spot on, so (for once!) booze wasn’t a problem.
Our drama came from a different quarter: the frustration of waiting for a taxi.
We knew taxis would be a worry this far out of town, so we tried to call them early. But with little success.
As 30 irritated teens milled waiting in the car park and surrounding dark, the tension was evident and growing.
Though I’d assigned a staff member to observe this area, I thought it best to ring local police for a bit of presence.
While on the phone, I was told a brawl had started. I left a staff member in the venue and ran to where my other colleague was busy separating three angry (and far from little) boys.
We bundled them into waiting transport. Fortunately the police arrived soon after to help control the crowd.
We’re not always this lucky.
Far out
When choosing your party venue, find out if transport will be an issue. Remote sites are great for reducing gatecrashers. But if you go too far out, you’ll have problems moving on the guests you did invite.
Parents must also realise they can’t run a party alone. When they plan one, they need to include responsible assisting parents in the mix.
Both the ‘dry’ teen events had inadequate parent supervision and proved the most difficult to manage.
While our security handled all of Saturday’s parties extremely well, there were issues.
One event had a guest list blow out from 90 to 140 at the last minute. The other had teens pre-guzzling and smuggling booze, urinating in baths and vomiting behind couches.
When you plan a party, you need 1 parent for every 20 kids. You also need the final guest list in your hand on the Wednesday prior to avoid nasty surprises.
Be smart, or you might not be as ‘lucky’ as these hosts we pulled back from the brink.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
The west ain’t the best!
May 15, 2012 at 3:50 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: bottle, child, crowd control, event, fight, gang, injury, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, police, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, tragedy, U-NOME Security, venue, violence, youth
Heading to a sad state of affairs.
Perth has been having so many major problems with teen parties that I have to say my piece.
Since the start of March, I’ve counted more than 30 teen events that have hit the media for all the wrong reasons.
The most serious incident was last week when gatecrashers attacked, stabbed and hospitalised four young departing guests.
These figures show that emergency service providers are being tied up unnecessarily every weekend.
Dealing with teen party chaos is stopping units from attending (or preventing!) more legitimate jobs such as road accidents, serious assaults and other crimes.
I shudder even to estimate the cost of using our precious police and ambulance services to clean up the messes stupid parents create!
Western Australia’s long coastline and party-friendly climate have a dark side: WA ‘leads’ the nation in teen party mayhem.
As a result, this otherwise impressive State must make radical changes in relation to teen events.
You may think I’m like a computer virus – always popping up in your face.
But if your child doesn’t make it home from their next party, you’ll wish someone (anyone!) had answered these vital questions I keep raising.
Every single party drama I’ve read about could have been avoided if we had suitable legislation in place.
It’s crazy …
You need a permit to own a dog, dig a pool or build a verandah.
Yet you don’t need a permit to responsibly plan and manage an event that ensures the safety of guests, neighbours and the community.
The days of ‘quiet’ teen parties for up to 100 kids are over.
Make a stand, WA, before it’s too late!
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Naomi Oakley
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