HOUSTON (AP) – The Houston Police and Fire Department were heavily involved in security operations for the music festival, in which a swelling crowd killed eight people, and played key roles in crowd control, on-site security and emergency response. The police chief even says he met with the headliner before the show.
Now city police are leading the criminal investigation into how the fatal mayhem broke out during the Friday night rapper Travis Scott’s performance.
While a prominent local official is calling for a separate, independent review of the tragedy, crowd security experts say an investigation by neutral outsiders could help the city avoid potential conflicts of interest and promote transparency.
Houston Police Department spokeswoman Jodi Silva declined to comment on whether her close involvement in the event caused a conflict or whether she was considering referring the investigation to an outside agency. Such decisions are often made during investigations such as police shootings.
“All information that we can currently publish has been published on Twitter,” said Silva.
The police department investigation would be separate from any independent investigation ordered by District Judge Lina Hidalgo, Harris County’s top elected officer, according to Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the district judge’s office. Hidalgo had not decided who would conduct such an independent review or how it would be conducted, Lemaitre said on Monday.
“She would like to know if this could have been prevented in any way,” said Lemaitre. “It is also quite possible that for whatever reason it was unavoidable, and we would like to know that too.”
Important questions remained unanswered after the Astroworld Festival in Harris County’s own NRG Park. Some of the lingering questions concern what the Houston Police and Fire Department before, during, and after a crowd streamed on the stage, killing eight people and injuring many more, with over 300 people treated on site and at least 13 more hospitalized. Other questions revolve around the actions of the organizers.
Houston Police and Fire Department officials said part of their investigation will include verifying that the concert promoter and others behind the festival have adhered to plans submitted for the event.
Astroworld organizers have set safety and emergency protocols for the festival in plans submitted to Harris County. The Associated Press’ 56-page plan of operations states that the festival director will decide, after consulting with others, including the security director, to evacuate the event. Such plans have been filed with Harris County and Houston and are to be reviewed by Houston police officers.
Christopher Slobogin, director of the criminal justice program at Vanderbilt University, said an independent criminal investigation into the Houston incidents could be beneficial in avoiding potential conflicts of interest. However, it is recognized that this case differs from typical situations in which authorities are faced with decisions about whether to withdraw from a case because of a conflict of interest.
“The actual crime probably wasn’t committed directly by the fire department or the police,” he said. “But at least for the sake of appearances, if an independent body did the investigation, I think that would be the better course of action.”
Officials said a private company was primarily responsible for the festival’s security, but Houston police were also tasked with the event. The plan says that medical care during the festival was provided by ParaDocs, a private company based in New York.
Houston fire chief Samuel Peña said at a press conference on Saturday that the injuries and the size of the crowd “quickly overwhelmed” private companies providing security and medical services. Peña said that although the medical response plan did not require the fire brigade to have units positioned around the festival, his agency decided to deploy those units “if this incident escalated”.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said in a statement Monday that he had a “brief and respectful” meeting with Scott and the rapper’s security chief the Friday before his performance. The boss said he asked her to cooperate with the police.
“I have raised my public safety concerns and have never seen a time in my 31 years of law enforcement experience more challenging for citizens of all ages to embrace a global pandemic and social tensions across the country,” said Finner.
G. Keith Still, visiting professor of crowd science at the University of Suffolk, UK, said his independent investigations into similar tragedies usually begin with an assessment of an event’s safety approval process. It evaluates how a permit was granted and whether the organizer has complied with the permit requirements.
“The police can sometimes be too busy taking eyewitness reports,” he said. “With 50,000 potential eyewitnesses, there is a huge, confused crowd left after they do all of that.”
The Houston Police and Fire Department said their investigation will include reviewing videos recorded by concert promoter Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips from people on the show. Officials also planned to review the event’s safety plan and see if the organizers were properly following the permit requirements.
Steven Adelman, vice president of the Event Safety Alliance industry group, said in an email that he saw no problem with public safety officials approving an independent investigation into the Houston tragedy.
“I would hope and assume that the investigation will be carried out by an external person who is not under the influence of the authorities involved in Astroworld. It’s not an uncommon scenario in complex situations like this, ”wrote Adelman, whose organization was founded after a stage collapsed that killed seven people at the 2011 Indiana State Fair.
Adelman said private forensic analysts had independently investigated the Indiana stage collapse, examining the stage roof engineering and crowd management.
“A good example of what we hope to see here,” Adelman said of the Houston investigation.
Finner has defended how long it took for the concert to be canceled after the first signs of trouble. The police chief said his department notified the concert organizers immediately after realizing that the participants had “gone under”. The event was canceled 40 minutes later after discussions involving the fire brigade and those responsible for the NRG Park.
“You can’t just close when you have 50,000 – over 50,000 – individuals, OK?” Finner said. “We have to worry about riots – riots – when you have such a young group.”
Peña said city officials limited attendance to 50,000 even though the venue could have held 200,000 due to fire regulations.
“The problem was controlling the audience at the point of the stage, especially when the crowd started pouring onto the stage,” said Peña.
Live Nation said in a statement that it is working with local authorities “so that both the fans who attended and their families get the answers they want and deserve, and we will address all legal matters in due course . “
Hidalgo tweeted on Saturday that she “calls for an objective and independent investigation into the incidents”. She also said her office is grateful for the work of the police and fire departments.
“It may well be that this tragedy is the result of unforeseen events, of circumstances that could not possibly have been avoided,” said Hidalgo. “But until we find that out, I’ll be asking the tough questions.”
Hidalgo’s office is not a law enforcement agency and has no authority to conduct criminal investigations.
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Kunzelman reported from College Park, Maryland. Associate press reporters Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas contributed to this report.
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