Using an incident commander from the Midwest Region, the superintendent and staff of Gateway’s Jamaica Bay Unit, together with the U.S. Park Police and the NY Police Department, employed a unified command system for the first time ever in order to prepare for and deal with a potentially dangerous and destructive public gathering within park boundaries. Members of the Guyanese-American community of New York City have gathered at Jacob Riis Park or Floyd Bennett Field for several years to celebrate Guyana’s Independence Day. With crowds growing beyond the capacity of the park to provide a safe and healthy environment, Gateway officials attempted to manage the situation through a standard permit process last year. Event organizers did not abide by permit conditions which limited attendance to 1,500 participants due to safety concerns, though, and over 40,000 people subsequently jammed park roadways for the one-day event, putting attendees at risk and causing destruction of park resources. Negotiations failed to find a solution to the problem this year, so the unified command system was put in place to create a proactive incident action plan in the event the group gathered this year despite a permit being denied. Substantial outreach and a public relations campaign are also credited with averting a repeat of the previous illegal gathering.
