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Sarasota Agricultural Fair Association Deploys Evolv Technology in the Aftermath of a Shooting

Blog Post
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Beatriz Almeida
Customer Success Marketing Director
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Publish date

Oct 5, 2021

On March 20, 2021, during the second day of the Sarasota Agricultural Fair, a gun went off inside the fairgrounds. An incident response plan was put into action and the park was ordered closed for the safety of visitors. The next day, a 15-year-old suspect was arrested for sneaking a handgun into the fair and shooting an 18-year-old acquaintance during an altercation.

And, just like that, a community that was once again gathering and celebrating together following a year of cancellations and isolation, was facing tragedy and more closings.

Re-opening would require enhanced security

To reopen the fair and welcome visitors back safely, the team needed to evaluate the Fair’s overall security posture and identify what gap led to a handgun entering the premises. During the assessment, it was discovered there was a breakdown with the bag checking process. Security checks would need to be enhanced and protocols would need to be changed.

A local Evolv account executive saw the news report and had an Evolv Express system on the site within days for the team to evaluate and test. They needed something that could handle the stream of visitors – 7,000 would pass through that gate over an eight-hour period; at peak times, waits at the security lanes were as long as 15 minutes.

Today, with Evolv, the security team is able to sustain consistent results through peaks and valleys, which is critically important when screening for weapons. They have also eliminated lines and reduced costs.

For more about how Evolv helped welcome visitors back to the Sarasota Agricultural Fair safely, see the full case study.

Beatriz Almeida
Customer Success Marketing Director
See Bio