As Summer Concert Season Ramps Up, UF Researchers Work To Help Make Public Spaces, Mass Events Safer

In 2017, a gunman opened fire on a packed music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds more — one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. As summer concert and festival season ramps up across the country, University of Florida researchers are working to prevent similar tragedies from ever happening again.

At UF’s SaferPlaces Laboratory, researchers are partnering with law enforcement agencies and private companies to test emerging technologies that help prevent violence at large public gatherings. The lab, led by criminologist Read Hayes, Ph.D., works closely with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, local police departments and security technology companies like Axon and Motorola Solutions.

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