According to data from the state government, approximately 90,000 events are held in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, each year. In practical terms, this number means that an event is held every six minutes in one of the 645 municipalities across the state. These events vary from artistic and cultural shows, to sporting events, rodeos, and public protests.¹

Such events also range in size from indoor musical performances with less than a dozen spectators, to an LGBT Pride Parade with more than 1 million participants. The common denominator for all these events is that, in order for them to occur, people and necessary equipment must travel to the venue. In this scenario, the transport system and particularly the road system will be impacted to some degree so that everything can arrive at the event.

Most of these events are concentrated in the capital city of São Paulo and certainly all the largest ones tend to take place there. The roadway interference caused by these major events led to the need to assemble officers specialized in traffic enforcement, through the Traffic Enforcement Command (CPTran).

Three major milestones took place that allowed CPTran to reach its current stage of operation concerning traffic enforcement for events: the major demonstrations that took place in Brazil in 2013 and 2015, the FIFA World Cup in 2014, and the opening of Allianz Parque in 2015.

Although they are different types of events, each of them provided important experiences and lessons that shaped CPTran’s initiatives, especially when identifying their points of congruence.

The regulations currently in effect in the police field are insufficient for CPTran, with respect to the definition of events itself. For police purposes, an event is any type of occurrence, regardless of its type or purpose. Thus, for traffic enforcement actions, with regard to the use of specialized personnel, the best definition to be used is

Events are occurrences, whether organized or not, that lead to the gathering of people with a common objective, whether of a sporting, cultural, political, ideological or religious nature, and that interfere with normal road circulation conditions, having the potential to impact Public Order.²

Classifying Events

With respect to the size of the events, in order to classify them and then plan the use of traffic enforcement initiatives, it is necessary to consider that current Brazilian legislation does not afford adequate conceptualization. In Brazil, the standard that provides for the Special Department for the Security of Large-Scale Events (SESGE, in Portuguese) defines the World Cup and the Olympic Games as large-scale events, which is not sufficient to account for their actual size.

Internationally, the magnitude of events is determined not only by the number of participants, but also by the added value in terms of benefits they provide (in the sense of business activities and infrastructure), press coverage, and public participation.

For the purposes of traffic enforcement, this magnitude must be assessed through a conceptual question about the event and how it pertains to road use. Its size, visibility, and relevance are important, but not as much as its duration, the extent to which it will impact the road system, and whether or not other related and simultaneous events are occurring.

There are countless examples of the differentiation of applied concept and the desired concept for planning traffic enforcement activities, with some important highlights. For example, for adequate operation on Avenina Paulista, one of the major avenues in the city of São Paulo, the number of participants in a given demonstration will be important only when assessing how much of the road will be used. In this specific case, it would be necessary only to isolate the avenue in both directions immediately in front of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). The reason for the protest will not matter for traffic enforcement purposes nor will it make a difference whether 100 or 10,000 participants are gathered. Due to the characteristics of this road, traffic enforcement should isolate at least five surrounding blocks, from Rua Peixoto Gomide to Rua Pamplona, to ensure the mitigation of impacts and the right to demonstrate.

Classifying events into certain types based on specific characteristics is a logical and rational way to facilitate the planning to be conducted by traffic enforcement. To that end, CPTran employs nine classification characteristics:

1. Is the event scheduled or unscheduled?
2. Is it located inside a specific facility or on a public road?
3. What is the duration of the event? Events may be of short, medium, long and extended duration—consider the extension of time that law enforcement actions will be required.
4. Is the event fixed or mobile?
5. What is the size of the event? Enforcement plans must account for the time required for concentration and dispersion of these people as a whole. This aspect is divided into four types: small, medium, large, and giant.
6. Will vehicles participate in the event (e.g., motorcycles, automobiles, or trucks with loudspeakers)? This classification is quite binary, answered with a simple yes or no.
7. Is the event associated with an organization or under specific leadership?
8. Is the consumption of alcohol or other addictive substances likely?
9. What is the risk of disrupting public order? This aspect is split into three levels: low, medium, and high risk.

Only after classifying events by type does CPTran proceed to establishing actions and processes to be adopted by traffic enforcement with respect to conducting their operations at the events. In general terms, these actions are divided into principles, planning, and objectives, which will serve as a basis for Law Enforcement initiatives by the military police involved.

Safety & Enforcement Principles

In all activities and actions, traffic enforcement principles are basically focused on three aspects: flow, safety, and traffic enforcement.

For events, flow is related to two basic aspects. The first is to what extent participants are able to freely take part in the event. The secondary aspect is the guarantee that all other people who do not wish to participate in the event can move about freely or experience only a minimal impact on their routines.

Safety is mainly related to the nonoccurrence of traffic crashes during event, and the guarantee of safety for both participants and nonparticipants alike.

Finally, enforcement is understood to be a tool for achieving the other principles. This tool should not be an end in and of itself; it is only a means to ensure that all people can fully exercise their freedoms and rights, especially those related to life, physical integrity and the right to come and go.

The bottom line of all these principles is CPTran’s main motto: Preserve Lives in Traffic.

Event Traffic Objectives

With these principles in place, the objectives of traffic enforcement at events are implemented, ensuring the event is held and mitigating possible impacts. There are four primary objectives to be achieved:

1. Ensure that the event takes place without risks for its participants.
2. Mitigate impacts on the right to come and go of other road users who are not participating in the event.
3. Ensure the performance of other types of overt police operations (Territorial or Shock Police, for instance) in the event of a breach of public order or for emergency response(fire department, mobile emergency medical services [SAMU, in Portuguese]), while minimizing risks to those not involved in the event.
4. Ensure the road returns to normal after the end of the event.

To exercise the first objective, it is important to bear in mind that the event, in its basic etymological definition, is something that will occur, regardless of other desires or norms. Even if not authorized by the Public Authority, an event becomes an event if and when it happens. For that reason, traffic enforcement must make sure that people who wish to participate are able to do so without major risks. This guarantee is provided via actions that facilitate the arrival and flow of participants and properly securing the venue so that there is no conflict between pedestrians and vehicles.

The second objective is about mitigating impacts caused to other road users who are not taking part in the event, but who wish to move about freely so that they can continue with their routines. This is the most important and visible aspect of specialized law enforcement, as the vast majority of people who circulate in the city have little or nothing to do with the event taking place. To that end, it is necessary to implement traffic detours (in conjunction with municipal traffic agencies) to allow for minimum disruption of people’s circulation.

The third objective is to ensure the isolation of the event´s venue, establishing a broad security area for institutions with the task of restoring public order to operate and sufficient space for first responders to act in case of an emergency. In every event, even if the risk is minimal, the possibility of some confrontation or breach of order must always be considered, which will require riot control action. Planned isolation ensures that no passersby are caught off guard. In the event of an emergency or catastrophe, this isolation will also guarantee the speedy arrival of aid and maintain a proper area open for appropriate medical care of possible injured or ill individuals.

Finally, the ultimate goal of traffic enforcement for events is that normality be readily restored on roads. To this end, actions are taken to guarantee faster and safer flow of participants, even if momentary blockages are necessary on some roads. The golden rule of this objective is for the event to happen as quickly as possible, so that the road can be safely restored to its regular day-to-day use, free of obstacles. That is why traffic enforcement agents will invariably be the last to withdraw from the theater of operations.

Planning for Events

There is no way to obtain a satisfactory result in any activity without good planning. When it comes to traffic enforcement actions for events, this statement is even more accurate, as all operations are characterized as being integrated actions conducted by several stakeholders (both public and private) with different interests and attributions. In the specific case, planning is elaborated in two major phases, each of which aims to provide the largest amount of information so that decisions can be made in the theater of operations.

Phase One: Pre-Analysis

The initial phase is the pre-analysis of the event, which is when the event is defined. In this regard, the event will be cataloged within the nine proposed classifications, seeking to analyze the event´s dynamics and possible actions required. This phase also involves the identification of the stakeholders involved, both public and private, in advance, and identifying their respective motivations and attributions.

In addition, the forms of mobility and access used by the public taking part in the event (transport modes used) are checked in an effort to better understand possible impacts on the road system. At least one preparatory meeting will take place with other stakeholders involved, in order to clarify and define necessary duties for each of them during the event. Traffic enforcement participation is essential at the meeting, often represented by an officer, preferably the one responsible for planning or carrying out the activities. Only on sporadic and extraordinary occasions, and only in case of segmented meetings, such a representative may be a sub-lieutenant or sergeant. After the meeting, personnel and means necessary for the performance of the mission are defined with the goal to adapt them to the magnitude of the event and the strategies to be defined and employed on location.

The next item to define is be the level of command for the mission, which, different from the other policing modalities, is based on the importance and magnitude of the event and not on the actual personnel employed. For this reason, even though the approach may employ a small contingent (e.g., 30 police officers) the major acting as operations coordinator of the battalion may command operations, in light of the need for greater decision-making power to meet the demands that may arise at the event. As such, this level of command is not required to obey formulas or tables but instead is assessed on a case-by-case basis by the battalion or CPTran commander.

Among the necessary actions, as learned during the FIFA World Cup in 2014, the definition of and participation in the control center are also essential. This center can be local, as in the case of stadiums and arenas, or in a different location, such as when using the Military Police Operations Center (COPOM, in Portuguese) in demonstrations or during Carnival, for instance.

The advantages of being represented at the control center are numerous, but particularly in traffic enforcement initiatives, they follow two paths of logic.

The first is that planning must always anticipate the potential for accidents or catastrophes to occur. Since there is already a place where the various agencies involved will be present, the creation of an Emergency Command and Operations System of the São Paulo State Fire Department (SICOE) is expedited.

The second path of logic is that of facilitating and streamlining communication between all stakeholders involved, immediately relaying all information that may, in any way, influence the actions performed.

In this sense, by centralizing images from inside and outside the venue, as well as its immediate vicinities, the police can ensure better information for decision-making by the operational command. Representation at the control center, as a rule, is done by a military police officer with a rank below the operation commander.

Phase Two: Strategy

Following the initial phase, strategies that will be adopted for the event are anticipated, which can be summarized as five general areas:

1. Provide for traffic enforcement and necessary authorizations for vehicles participating in the event.
2. Predict the isolation of the venue (interdictions, diversions, traffic flow alternatives).
3. Predict escape routes for possible operations in case of a breach of public order.
4. Provide for safe driving operation.
5. Predict the outflow of participants and how to reopen the roads.

If vehicles are taking part in the event, they must carry authorization from the traffic agency with jurisdiction over that specific road. If they fail to display such authorization, drivers may be cited for disturbing, restricting, or interrupting normal movement on the road. Another necessary authorization is for vehicles with excess dimensions, since they cannot travel on some roads due to their height or width. Vehicle inspection is a way of ensuring greater control over the event and the safety of its participants. Therefore, enforcement shall cover aspects of vehicle safety and driver capacity.

Another strategy is needed to anticipate the necessary isolation of the site or venues (in the case of mobile events). In this case, necessary blockage and deviation points are analyzed, as well as alternate traffic routes for other road users. Mobile events must have planned blockages and detours throughout the entire route, thus requiring greater experience by the command when dealing with unplanned events and those with no defined leadership.

In the city of São Paulo, this strategy is established jointly with the Traffic Engineering Company (CET, in Portuguese) and duties are usually distributed among agencies according to their proximity to the event itself. Therefore, CPTran oversees points closest to the event and where major problems related to disrupting public order may occur, and CET is responsible for a more extended perimeter.

Under this same principle of isolation, it is incumbent on traffic enforcement to predict possible escape routes for participants, in the event of necessary action to restore public order, ensuring that this route is free of vehicles, minimizing the possibility of injury to people who are not involved in the event.

The fourth strategy relates to events where consumption of alcoholic beverages is allowed or where participants may use addictive substances. Such events are usually concerts and those that take place in public streets, where there is no restriction on the sale of alcohol. In such events, a number of people tend to drive vehicles under the influence of such substances, requiring the provision of a specific enforcement operation to address this situation and avoid collisions.

As a last strategy, it is necessary to foresee routes and places through which participants may travel, providing for road closures (such as those conducted around stadiums) and momentary deviations in order to guarantee the public’s safety. In the same manner, it is necessary to monitor the reopening of the road, including any cleaning required and escorting vehicles so they can safely reoccupy the streets.

Through careful planning and analysis, CPTran is able to prepare for events and manage related traffic enforcement in a manner that maintains the safety of both those participating in the event and the state’s residents and visitors who are not attending but still need to use the roadway. The strategies employed, while specific to São Paulo, model the type of planning that can be employed by other urban areas home to numerous events.

Notes:

¹ GL Events, “São Paulo: The City That Never Sleeps.”

² Military Police, State of São Paulo, operational definition.

Please cite as

Ivan Gonzaga de Oliveira, “Traffic Enforcement for Events: São Paulo’s Process for Managing Traffic for Large Gatherings,” Police Chief Online, September 30, 2020.