Practical dog handler support for safe, smooth events
Crowd ingress, back-of-house, vehicle gates—live events controlled access.
ACO supplies detection dog teams (explosives, firearms, drugs, pyrotechnics) and security dog teams to help venues and organisers keep people safe and operations moving. We integrate with your stewarding, private security and police partners, work to UK standards, and record what matters.
How we support event operations
We plug into your plan rather than getting in the way. Typical deployments include:
- Ingress screening: passive lines at turnstiles/queue lanes; targeted checks at VIP and staff entrances
- Back-of-house sweeps: stage compounds, dressing rooms, service corridors, plant rooms
- Vehicles & goods-in: screening of production trucks, deliveries and contractor vehicles
- Patrol & deterrence: security dog patrols during build/derig, overnight or around high-value zones
- Targeted searches: drugs/pyro at NTE venues, festivals and stadiums under venue policy
- Comms & control: radio call-signs, clear handoff to your control room and supervisors
This results in fewer bottlenecks, fewer surprises, and an auditable record of what was searched and when.
Typical scenarios we handle
- Stadium and arena ingress (home/away segregation, VIP lanes)
- Festivals and outdoor shows (build/derig, perimeter patrols, crowd lines)
- Exhibition and conference centres (BOH sweeps, goods-in screening)
- Transport-adjacent venues and city events (pop-up screening, vehicle checkpoints)
- NTE venues needing visible deterrence and policy-driven searches
On-site approach
- Brief & zoning: agree risk areas, search boundaries, escalation routes and radio tags
- Search plan: passive lines for people; proactive area/vehicle sweeps on a timed schedule
- Handover protocol: indications passed to supervisors; venue policy dictates next steps
- Welfare & rotation: planned rests, hydration and environmental checks; documented
- Logs & debrief: search routes, timings, indications and outcomes recorded for your file
What you get from us
- Search logs (who/where/when; areas cleared)
- Indication reports (location, action taken)
- Incident notes with control-room or police refs where used
- Welfare/training records available for audit on request
Where dog teams add the most value
- High-throughput ingress where queues must keep moving
- High-value compounds and overnight builds that attract theft
- Vehicle choke points and goods-in where risk concentrates
- Events with specific contraband risks (drugs/pyro) under venue policy
What we don’t do
- Blanket, unrestricted searches without an agreed legal/policy basis
- Heavy-handed tactics that slow ingress or create unnecessary friction
- “Show” bite work or practices that conflict with UK welfare/operational standards
