Patent Application
20250019914
Dynamics of crowd behavior can change rapidly as the situation on the ground changes. Negative interactions involving uses of force or other enforcement actions against individuals in a crowd by security personnel can and will increase civil unrest problems exponentially if the public perceives these actions as unjust regardless of whether they are legally justified or not. Therefore, it is critical that the security entities have the capability to control when and how they interact with the public during civil unrest and other crowd events, and that those interactions not only meet the requisite legal requirements but that they are perceived by the public as legitimate actions. Having adequate barrier system that can easily expand and contract to increasing or decreasing threats of violence would be an incredibly important tool to facilitate security elements' legitimate enforcement efforts for the facilitation of lawful behavior. Current forms of portable “crowd control” fencing do little to support security elements or law enforcement with the understanding of how civil unrest develops and creates negative crowd contagion risk due to its inadequacies. Currently available and commonly used crowd control fencing that is used globally is frequently referred to as “bicycle fencing”. This is due to the appearance of this fencing type to be similar to bicycle racks styled for the bicycle tire to fit in-between vertical metal poles. The fencing is light and easily movable. The fencing is generally not affixed to the ground and has exposed connection points that are easily disassembled. Even when interconnected to other pieces of fencing this bicycle style fencing can be picked up and pushed into areas that law enforcement is protecting and can create conflict and violent encounters. The fencing is easily dissembled and can be used as a weapon or moveable fence against security elements. This fencing is not designed to take significant force against it and can handle very little pressure from moving. This style of portable fencing is not designed to expand vertically, nor does it have any ability to stop individuals from climbing over the fencing. This style of fencing also has very limited capabilities within itself and can become a weapon with an unruly crowd, thereby increasing the likelihood of a negative interaction that can increase the risk of creating a larger civil disturbance. The Expandable Crowd Barricade System is uniquely designed to provide security elements with an expandable capability to provide an expandable capability to meet there evolving needs and to reduce violent interactions. The increase in capabilities can be utilized by security elements as part of their broader crowd control de-escalation strategies.
The Expandable Crowd Barrier System comes in two sections, the lower Base Section, and upper Anti Climb Section. Both sections are designed with heavy duty welded aluminum tubing. The Base (lower) Section has a modified upside-down W design that decreases in width to the top rail of the (lower) Base Section. This design creates a stable base designed to resist front-back force by having offset and opposing contact area that can be secured to the ground. The Anti Climb (upper) section can be affixed to the top of the (lower) Base Section by protected bolt connection points and continues the same descending modified upside-down W design to resist front and back forces throughout the barricade structure. This section is also supported by a heavy-duty metal support pole that goes from the top of the (Upper) Anti-Climb Section to the ground, greatly increasing front to back force.
The (lower) base section is secured to the ground by anchor bolts enhancing the descending modified upside-down W design support from outside forces. To connect multiple units together side to side is done by a tab and socket design for both the Base (lower) and Anti Climb (upper) sections. The Tab and Socket sections access is secure from malevolent actions due to the access to the connection being only to the rear of the barricade system, while still allowing positioning the fencing both front and back.
This Barricade system allows law enforcement the ability to expand and contract its defensive posture by utilizing all the Expandable Barricade System or just part of it. Its design and features mitigate the risk of the fencing being used as a weapon and eliminates having to maintain personnel on a potentially violent fence line simply to maintain the fence.
Drawing 1—This drawing depicts the front view of the (lower) Base Section of fencing with the top and bottom rails and the location of the tab and tab socket location on the (lower) base sections.
Drawing 2—This drawing depicts the top view and side view, capturing the descending width modified upside down W shape that provides a supportive structure throughout both sections. The side view further captures descending width of the modified upside-down W and the support angle that is created to mitigate front to back pushing forces. This drawing provides for orientation of view designating “Front” and “Top” of the respective views. This drawing points to the locations of the connection points to the upper section to the lower section as well as the connection points from the (lower) base section to the ground material.
Drawing 3—This drawing depicts both the front view and the top-down view of the upper section frame. The top-down view illustrates the continued descending width of the modified upside-down W and the continued support angle designed to resist front to back pushing forces. This drawing also depicts the front view of the upper section with the anti-climbing mesh covering that is fixed to the upper frame. The tabs and tab socket hinge connection points are identified and labeled in Drawing 3 as well as the 2 points of attachment for the support post. The drawing also identifies the points of attachment to the (lower) base section.
Drawing 4—This drawing depicts both the (lower) Base Section and the Anti Climb (upper) Section connected with the removable support member in place from a side view. The drawing depicts anchor bolts at the points of ground contact, both at the Base Section and the Support Post and identifies height.
Drawing 5—This drawing depicts a detail view of the socket section from Drawing 1,
Drawing 6—This drawing depicts the tab opening of the socket from the side where the tab would be inserted.
Drawing 7—This drawing depicts the socket to the front. There is a partial tab opening on this side towards the outside direction. This will allow for partial front rotation of the tab to be able to move the adjacent section forward as well as backward while still protecting the connection point from the front.
The bottom of the Base (lower) section is designed with a top and bottom rail with vertical support members supporting these rails. The rails and supporting members contact the ground in a manner to create offset contact points being wider at the base than the top. This is achieved by creating the lower and upper rail of the base section into a modified upside-down W. The bottom of the base is the largest footprint and uniformly decreases in width to the top rail of the Base (lower) section, which is also shaped as a modified upside-down W. There are support members at the pivot points (intersecting lines of the letter W) of the modified upside-down W and in-between these points at consistent intervals and connecting the correlating portion of the bottom rail to the top rail. The descending width modified upside down W shape continues throughout the design that provides the stability and support to achieve resistance to front and back forces. The top rail of the (lower) Base Section will provide the support for the upper Anti Climb (Upper) Wall section. There will be securing points for the bottom rail of the (upper) Anti-Climb Wall Section and top rail of the (lower) Base Section at both ends and the middle to bolt both sections together. The support for the upper anti climb section relies on both the upside-down modified W shape and the bolt connectors. On the left side of the Base Section (orientation of view is looking back to front) will be two protruding equally spaced heavy duty metal tabs with bolt holes. On the right side there will be two equally spaced, tab socket openings. The heavy-duty tabs with bolt holes and socket openings will be the protected connection points between lower and upper sections of the fencing systems and other adjacent sections that would be utilized to increase the overall length of the barricade. These socket openings will be open to the rear of the fencing allowing the deploying resources to place a threaded bolt into the socket through the tab hole to fix two pieces of fencing together at two equally spaced points on the side. To the side of the fencing on the socket side of the fence or the right side will be an opening just larger than the tab to allow the insertion of the tab into the socket. To the front of the barricade, at the tab opening to the right side of the tubing will be an approximate 25% opening cut. This will allow the barricade to pivot, once connected both to the front and to the back while keeping the contact protected from efforts to disconnect the fencing. Along the bottom rail of the Base Section at the pivot points (these are points of the letter W where connecting straight lines are at, two at the bottom and one at the top) of the modified upside-down W, a total of 3 securing tabs will be available. These securing tabs will utilize one of three different securing anchor bolts depending on the ground material Concrete Anchor Bolts, Asphalt Anchor Bolts, or for frequently used locations, threaded sockets will be imbedded in concrete to allow for normally threaded bolts and quick set up. The modified upside-down W design with the use of the anchor bolts and the secure tab and socket connection will make the fencing incredibly challenging to be defeated by human power alone. The securing tab points are at the backside of the fencing protecting the connection from malicious action. The angle at which this fencing is designed combined with the connection points works together throughout the entire fencing system to resist pushing forces. This design also creates an angle of the supports from the bottom rail of the unit to the top of the unit which would decrease the probability of an individual getting stuck at the base of the fencing compared to fencing that was straight up and down.
The Anti Climb (upper) Section can be added on to double the height from 4 feet to 8 feet. This section continues to build off the support of the reducing width, modified upside-down W design that mitigate front to back force with a lower rail the same dimensions as the top rail of the (lower) base section. The descending angles culminate in a modified V shape of the top rail. This section is made of heavy-duty aluminum tubing structure frame with an anti-climbing metal mesh fixed to the front of the heavy-duty aluminum tubing frame. Similar to base (lower) section, the left side of the Anti-Climb Section there are two equally spaced protruding tabs with holes in them. On the right side there will be two equally spaced, tab socket openings. These socket openings will entirely open to the rear of the fencing allowing the deploying resources to place a threaded bolt into the socket through the tab hole of the connecting section to fix two pieces of fencing together at two equally spaced points on the side. To the side of the fencing on the socket side of the fence or the right side will be an opening just larger than the size of the tab to allow the insertion of the tab. To the front of the barricade, at the tab opening to the right side of the tubing will be an approximate 25% opening cut. This will allow the barricade to pivot, once connected both to the front and to the back while keeping the contact protected from being destroyed or hampered with and thwart efforts to disconnect the fencing. At the top of the Anti-Climb Section at both end corners will be a bolt hole where the removable support member will connect. This removable support member will connect the top at the distal ends of the (upper) Anti-Climb Section directly to the ground to the rear of the fully erected barricade at angle. This removable support member will also be affixed to the ground utilizing the appropriate anchor bolt (This would be a concrete anchor bolt, a asphalt anchor bolt, or previously placed threaded socket in cement).
Each of these sections individually is light enough to be moved by a single adult. Each type of section is designed to be able to be stackable together to limit the storage space that is needed for large numbers.
