The Leading in a Crisis Podcast

EP 39 Bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in England, part 1: navigating the police response and incident communications with Amanda Coleman

Tom Episode 39

Send us a text

On today's episode we take you back to a terrorist bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in 2017. A suicide bomber detonated a backpack bomb loaded with nails just after the concert ended, killing 22 concertgoers and  injuring hundreds more. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Our guest today, Amanda Coleman, served as the lead press officer for the Greater Manchester Police during that incident.  That agency managed the initial response, which quickly escalated to a national incident with Cobra activation at 10 Downing Street. (Cobra is the UK government's highest level of government response to an incident, and includes the Prime Minister and key cabinet secretaries.) Amanda shares with us her experiences managing the communications team and facing the many unexpected challenges associated with a terrorist attack in her community.

ow do you effectively manage communication during a catastrophic event? Tune in as we uncover the strategies and experiences of Amanda Coleman, a veteran crisis communication specialist. Amanda shares her extraordinary journey navigating the immediate aftermath of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. She details the critical steps she took to ensure accurate and timely information was disseminated, the importance of preparation and collaboration among emergency responders, and the unique hurdles posed by the incident and the city's geography.

Amanda offers invaluable insights into balancing the emotional needs of grieving families with the demands of an ongoing police investigation. Discover her improvisations when an emergency hotline failed and the significance of providing emotional support to both the bereaved and responders. This episode provides a compelling look at the multifaceted, human-centered approach to crisis communication during one of Manchester's most challenging times.

Amanda has published two books on crisis communication strategies and more routine communication strategies. You can purchase those books at Amazon here.

We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.

Tom Mueller:

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Leading in a Crisis podcast. We're happy to have you with us today. On this podcast, we share stories from the front lines of crisis management through interviews, storytelling and lessons learned shared by experienced crisis leaders. I'm Tom Mueller With me today. My co-host again, Marc Mullen. Marc, welcome.

Marc Mullen:

Greetings, Tom, looking forward to our time together today.

Tom Mueller:

Today we are venturing to England to talk with a highly experienced crisis leader, Amanda Coleman. Amanda fits right in on this podcast as she is a crisis communication specialist, just like Mark and myself. Amanda is also a published author, with two books to her credit on communications and crisis communications, and today she runs her own consultancy, Amanda Coleman Consultancy Limited, which is based in England. Amanda started her career as a journalist before joining the Greater Manchester Police as a public information officer, and it's the context of that role with Greater Manchester Police that we're going to talk to Amanda today. Amanda, welcome to the show.

Amanda Coleman:

Thank you for inviting me. I'm looking forward to it.

Tom Mueller:

Hey, we appreciate you taking the time and I know we're going to have a great conversation Now for our listeners. I want to take you back to 2017. Ariana Grande had just concluded a concert at the Manchester Arena in England a full concert with thousands of participants and attendees there. Suddenly, as the concert was letting out, an explosion rocked the arena. A suicide bomber had detonated a backpack bomb in a hallway just as concert goers were departing the show and the explosion left dozens of people dead or seriously injured. Amanda, she was on duty that night for the Greater Manchester Police and spent the next several weeks working this crisis. Amanda, it's hard to put into words how crazy that night must have been for you, but I wonder if you could start off by just walking us through those first hours of the incident. And where were you when you got the call?

Amanda Coleman:

I actually wasn't on duty when the incident occurred. We had an on-duty press officer who called me probably only 10 minutes after it happened, to say that we were aware there's an explosion at the arena and we had very limited information at that point and we agreed a line that we would put out on social media and luckily, because we'd done the planning work, we were able to do that without having to get it proved, because it was just some basic information about an incident and to keep away from the area. I did my usual when those sorts of things happened went on social media on the kind of rolling news and there was lots of confusion about what it could be at that point and there was lots of confusion about what it could be at that point. So I suppose at that point I'd done, you know, something like 17 years in police communication and I just had the feeling that it was going to be something quite significant. So I then got ready to go into work. I was about half ten at night and then didn't get home until probably about one o'clock the next afternoon.

Amanda Coleman:

As we were, I was traveling into work, it was only a short drive. We got the update about the fact that it was a bomb and that people had been killed. So you got that know, we knew that it was then going to be a really significant job. We'd planned for those things. You know that everybody remembers that 2017 there'd been incidents in london and incidents in europe, so we were sort of had done some preparation work, only it had been for a marauding firearms type of terrorist attack and not for what we ended up experiencing. Um, and it's strangely, when she said there was so much going on and it was very um, there was just it was kind of frantic, I suppose in one sense in terms of so much activity. But you kind of slip into a sort of calm, of right, we know what we need to do, um, and yeah, so, so probably the initial moments, I was probably at my sort of calm, I suppose, um, because you slip into kind of you know what you need to do and you start to do it.

Tom Mueller:

You sort of slip on the armor of crisis and just jump in and get working. How was it sort of gathering information? Because I assume you were located at the Manchester Police headquarters, but the incident site would have been some distance away at the arena. So how was, how were you able to gather facts and and put together statements?

Amanda Coleman:

yeah, I mean the good thing is because of the way um it kind of works in terms of emergency response, um, we all, um at a strategic level, sit together so there was representatives from all kind of the sea kind of major organizations involved. Um, I went immediately to to the police headquarters where that control room was was based and you are getting information relayed back all the time so you, you know you have the most up-to-date information, um, recognizing there's going to be big gaps, because with something like that there's inevitably going to be huge gaps in information as, as you know, more details start to cut, to emerge. Um, and it also gives you the access to senior officers to be able to get things approved and information out as quickly as possible. And I think that was the biggest kind of focus, for for us that night was because it had happened at half past 10 at night. You know there's lots of people that would be going to bed, getting up and suddenly hearing the news and wondering where people were and that kind of thing.

Amanda Coleman:

So you know, our focus overnight was really about trying to make sure anybody who was concerned had somewhere to go, had the most up-to-date information and could could try and deal with any kind of urgent actions that they needed to because of the nature of it. But yeah, and Really I was going to say that the police headquarters is probably only about 15 minutes drive from the arena. It's quite a small. I mean, I think this is why Manchester and the response was slightly different to other places and that it's Manchester is quite a small and I don't know it's very different to London. London you get lots of international travellers. You do get international people to Manchester, but not in the same way. So I think that's why sometimes what we did would have been was different to what has happened in other capital cities, because it's much more of a community feel, I think, to where we were we were.

Tom Mueller:

Well, we'll talk about the escalation of this here in just a moment, because clearly with a terrorist attack you've got a national emergency on your hands and you know the whole of government would be engaged in responding. But at this point you're just on this at the control center. I wonder can you paint us a little picture of what that control center activity was like? Are you hearing, you know, radio broadcasts coming in from the scene? Is it noisy, busy or is it very quiet stage?

Amanda Coleman:

It was just I was going to say it was, it was busy, but I wouldn't say necessarily kind of frantic, noisy. There was a small room to the side where there would be meetings happening every hour and more frequently if needed, so you'd be constantly being pulled into different meetings. The rest of the room is divided into different agencies, sort of desks, so you would have like the transport infrastructure. They would be a kind of senior person at a desk. They're the same for, um, for you know, kind of other services and responders, um. So there's lots of activity, lots of people obviously tactically trying to deal with things, um a bank of video screens which were relaying CCTV and any images and things that people could get from whatever sources we had at that time. And one of the challenges I had was that that was on one of the floors in the building and about three floors lower down was where the communications room was, where we all were usually based. So we had to kind of keep relaying information upwards and downwards between the floors, which sounds dead easy, but actually when you're in that sort of environment it's much harder, you know, because you can't just go. I'm just going to nip downstairs and go down in the lift, you know, because you can't just go. I'm just going to nip downstairs and go down in the lift. By the time you've done that and come back, you've probably lost 20 minutes and you haven't got that time. So there was lots of kind of um emails and messages and quick phone calls and um, which, which was difficult for me because I felt like I was leaving the small team that were dealing with the media inquiries and trying to manage what was happening, um, in terms of questions and things that were dealing with the media inquiries and trying to manage what was happening in terms of questions and things that were being asked. I kind of felt like sometimes I left out to leave them because they were fronting that as much as they could and I was trying to provide the strategic kind of lead and information to them.

Amanda Coleman:

So, yeah, so it's always massively challenging, I think, with the information flows and as the time, not particularly on that night, but as things developed, as you said, there was national issues and local issues. So we would have what we call rolling logs. That would be kind of updated information, and there was one for government departments, there was one for national counter-terrorism policing, there was one for general policing, because there was a lot of firearms officers out and about in the aftermath of it, in the days that followed um, as well as ones that we would have with other um public sector communicators. So, very quickly, my inbox was getting would get clogged all the time, like literally all the time, because we were only allowed a certain amount of uh of space on your email and um, and it was incredibly frustrating and when I do work now I'm forever saying to people it's those little things that will make your job a lot harder and they seem insignificant when we're talking now and like you know, about something as serious as that, but actually they become a real disabler to getting information and to dealing with things and to getting decisions made into doing things.

Amanda Coleman:

So, yeah, I think we think we have to plan for the big stuff so you can sweat the small stuff, and the small stuff is, you know, just find an easy way of sharing information. That's not going to keep being a continued problem. Um, as time went on, we ended up going back to uh using a whiteboard um for lots of things, because it was just easier. We were all in same sort of location, coming in on different shifts, so it was a lot easier to then go. That's, that's all the latest information on the board over there and we'll keep that up to date in lieu of, kind, of all the problems with email chains. So, yeah, it's, but the room itself, as I say, busy, yeah, and just a lot of activity between different agencies trying to coordinate the response.

Marc Mullen:

Okay, so you had your communications room three floors down from what we would call the command center and you had information. It sounds like you had information coming into your room from all over. Was that through emails and phone calls, or were people dropping in? Or how were you handling the need of the public to know? Were they able to reach directly to you?

Amanda Coleman:

Your information was coming from just a whole whole range of things. There were people coming in with updates for from their activity and from what they'd done. There was in female information that was coming in. There was text messages, you know, there was. It was literally every channel. There was information coming in. Um, I think what.

Amanda Coleman:

What we aimed to do was put out as much information as we possibly could that we knew was factually accurate. So we tried to use social media and and the media as time went on, um to get as much information out as we possibly could to correct any inaccuracies and also to deal with the lots of kind of overnight because of what happened. There was lots of concerns if people had seen police activity in an area or you know they'd seen a, a bag. I remember, um, there was a homeless person who, um, there was, there was a pile of kind of bags and there was. You know that had to. That would became a massive issue. So there was. We had to deal with all that and try and get a swifter response as we possibly could. So there was lots of you know. We found this out, check it out, make sure we knew the detail and get back to you know, get something out about it as quickly as possible.

Amanda Coleman:

A nd the speed, I think you know it's it just gets. It gets faster and faster, doesn't it? I mean, you've literally got split seconds to be able to keep going. Let's check this, let's get that, and and that was very much kind of just the total focus was get as much proactively out as we could and deal with all the queries that were coming in. I mean, the other really useful thing that I always think we kind of forget is that all that information coming in in terms of questions from the journalists or from other sources or from people on social media, can be incredibly beneficial and useful as part of the operational response, because you know you can get details of where people are concerned or if there's something happened. So I always you know. So it's definitely the kind of two-way um flow of information, but very challenging to manage because you just get it through so many different um, so many different places.

Tom Mueller:

How was your how was your approval process for getting statements delivered and approved and the chaos of that, and you have an established procedure for that, I would assume. Did that change or was it more difficult in this environment?

Amanda Coleman:

Yeah, it was difficult and, like we were saying, because of the national interest, because of the kind of political interest, because of the kind of for there's a certain formula, kind of approach that has to happen with any terrorist incident. So you can't call it a terrorist incident until it's got Home Secretary approval, etc. Etc. So some of that became a real challenge In terms of work we'd already done. We had the ability to do the initial couple of line. You know, we know there's an incident without any approval because we had that delegated authority. That was really important. And then the governance was very much through what we call like the gold commander. So the person, you know the senior police officer who was in charge, um, and because we were literally sat virtually, kind of you know, a few couple of seats away, you can go. Okay, we need to say this now um, when we did, we did two media statements, um, on camera, at about three o'clock in the morning and then seven o'clock in the morning, um, and those were with the chief constable. So you know, pulling those together was challenging because we had to go. What do we? What do we want to say? What do we need to say? What are the things that people are concerned about, along with recognizing that you've got a big police investigation that's going to happen and there's certain things at some point they're going to want to put out around what people seen and heard and what information do people have.

Amanda Coleman:

But the balance for us was very different, suppose, than we'd even planned for. Um, whenever we've done any any kind of serious incidents, it always been what do we, what do we need in terms of the investigation? And that's what you would primarily be focused on. Have you seen this? Do you understand what was leading up to the incident With this?

Amanda Coleman:

It became very much focused on the people who were caught up in it. As you mentioned at the start, there was 22 people who went to the concert and never came home and we we knew that, that their families would be trying to find out about them. Then they would be getting terrible news and and and. For us, that became the focus of recognizing that and recognizing the support that they needed and the things that they would need to know and the things that their kind of loved ones and family and friends and uh, would need to know. The police element of it kind of took a bit of a secondary position, um, and that that stayed with us right the way through um and became probably one of the biggest aspects of the communications response.

Tom Mueller:

Yeah, I just can't imagine sort of taking those phone calls from a distressed parent, you know, looking for a child or a spouse or that. So how did you guys manage that then? And was that police responsibility to sort of set up a hotline for people to call in to try and track down their loved ones? Talk us through that very delicate piece of this operation.

Amanda Coleman:

Yeah, I mean that was a big challenge because there is a standard process for setting up an emergency hotline number and the company responsible for doing that, um, weren't able to respond quickly enough. So there was a massive challenge. They did apologize at the public inquiry. They they apologized a number of times that they were slow to respond. So it ended up being um. We had to put a kind of sticking plaster to to because we knew we needed to get that number out there. So we ended up having a police number rather than a specific setup number. We had to utilize one of the existing kind of office numbers um, with the people who were trained to staff um, the um casualty bureau, as it's kind of termed. And then at some point which I can't quite remember exactly when it was, but it was certainly not overnight and into the next day, um, it became a a different number because that process kicked in, but it was certainly not overnight. And into the next day, um, it became a different number because that process kicked in. But it just shows, you know, even with something that's so such a core part of any kind of crisis response and that happens all the time and there is in the crisis. You can't ever rely that it will work perfectly, because it didn't in this case. And, um, you know we had to find a workaround because, as you said, that was one of the most critical things and it was really difficult for us. We were waiting for, you know, it did get the details to get the information of who we thought the the kind of people who had died were. You were seeing people being interviewed, um, who were, you know, family, who were trying to find their loved ones, and it's. It is really difficult. There's a huge kind of emotional roller coaster around it, just as he as a responder and and kind of doing the communication kind of work. But I suppose on one level, it drove us to try and do more. So we, we did a lot more than than um we we'd ever planned to in, you know, supporting what the family liaison officers who were then appointed to work with the bereaved families we had.

Amanda Coleman:

I had a team of kind of three um of the public, what you call public information officers, three press officers, as we call them, who were literally going around speaking to all the family members to get tributes, to work out what they wanted in terms of you know how they were going to handle the media and even through to funerals and trying to look at how we could manage that. So not to tell them what to do do that was never any kind of focus but to help them navigate so that what they needed and what they wanted we could try and facilitate and help as much as possible. And it became a huge piece of work, um, but for me I think that was one of the the if there's anything kind of, you can be kind of look back and say, yeah, I was really pleased with that bit. I think that bit was what, for us, became the, the most beneficial element of what we did. Um, and that was never part of the plan um, that was never in the plan um, but it, you know.

Amanda Coleman:

But for me that's where we should be all the time really, with these, with disasters and emergencies, um, that should be where the first thought goes to have we supported?

Amanda Coleman:

A re we there for the people who are really caught up in this and then worry about some of the other elements around that. And the same goes kind of for internal, because from the next day so that was like overnight, but into the next day. Um, obviously we've got a huge amount of people who are responding in different ways within the, the from the police, um service side and dealing with really difficult things. So you've got that whole kind of well-being, welfare, emotional support internally as well to to to deal with and to be able to start to to kind of identify and try and put those messages out as quickly as possible really, because you know, some people struggle very quickly and other people it can take. Well, one of my press officers it took a year really before she admitted that she needed to go and speak to somebody because of what she dealt with during the incident. So yeah, I think for me that's the most critical part of anything that we do really.

Marc Mullen:

Was that understanding all the way up through the command post itself? Or was this where you were managing a very human process of dealing with victims and their families, while the response was focused on investigations and so on? Or did you have support all the way up to share whatever was needed in order to help the human process of identifying and dealing with the loss?

Amanda Coleman:

Yeah, it became kind of a key element, driver of the strategy, um, right up to senior level um, that we knew we needed to, we needed to to help people and do the best we could for the people who were affected and there was like hundreds really when you look at it, because obviously it was the 22 people who tragically um died, but then there was many, many more that had physical and psychological injuries and a lot of them were young people as well because of the nature of the concert. So so there's a natural kind of that that had to be the, the kind of driving force for everything that said there's a big police investigation operation and response, but it was always rooted in recognizing what had happened and not losing sight of the emotional distress and and, like you say, the, the, all the elements that people were having to deal with and that were facing um and even people who weren't necessarily directly connected, because Manchester, like I said, is a bit of a community sort of feel, um, and you know all my staff lived or had been bought and brought and brought up in and around the area. You kind of had this personal connection to it. The arena is one of the biggest concert venues. Everybody virtually had been to it at some point, so there's just so many kind of connectors to it, um, and again, in some respects that's hard, but others it helps really focus you on what matters and focus you on, you know, just wanting to do the best.

Amanda Coleman:

The challenge for me, I think on a personal level, was it took me a lot. I've always felt we could, and particularly I could have done more, because you have that sort of survivor feeling where you just think there must have been more we could do. There must have been more we could do. You can't make it go away, you can't make that pain go away for the people who've got that, that the terrible kind of trauma to deal with. But you can just try and do what you can to help in some way. And I think it took me a while to really kind of wrestle with that um, because it's a difficult thing. I think anybody responding in different ways experiences, isn't it?

Marc Mullen:

Yes.

Tom Mueller:

And that's going to do it for this episode of the Leading in a Crisis podcast. Thanks for joining us. If you like what you're seeing, then please like and subscribe to the podcast and give us a five-star rating and tell your friends and colleagues about us as well. We'll see you again for the next episode of the Leading in a Crisis podcast.

Marc Mullen:

Thank you.

People on this episode