Crisis actor

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Emergency medical technicians from the 96th Medical Group move a "wounded" Airman toward safety during an active shooter exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in 2014

A crisis actor (aka actor-patient or actor victim) is a trained actor, role player, volunteer, or other person engaged to portray a disaster victim during emergency drills to train first responders such as police, firefighters or EMT personnel. Crisis actors are used to create high-fidelity simulations of disasters in order to allow first responders to practice their skills and help emergency services organizations to prepare and train in realistic scenarios as part of full-scale disaster exercises.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Disaster training simulations

Actors take on the role of mock victims and simulate specific injuries from a disaster to add life-like realism to an emergency exercise. Theatrical makeup and cosmetics, plus rubber and latex appliances, are often used to simulate a variety of wounds or medical conditions that realistically portray victim's injuries, a practice known as medical moulage.^[7][8][9]

Actors who portray news reporters, relatives of victims, and concerned citizens are also used during drills to train emergency operations center personnel to cope with a variety of emotionally-charged demands and requests.^[10]

Conspiracy theories and defamation

The term has been used by conspiracy theorists who claimed that some mass shootings were staged, and victims and their families were being played by crisis actors. Conspiracy theorists' use of the term is thought to have originated in 2012, when a blog post by former professor and professional conspiracy theorist James Tracy suggested that the government could have hired an acting agency named Visionbox, which supplied crisis actors who were "trained in criminal and victim behavior, and bring intense realism to simulated mass casualty incidents in public places" to help stage the Sandy Hook shooting.

Tracy also promoted a crisis actor conspiracy theory of the Boston Marathon bombing.^[11][12] Conspiracy theorists have claimed such attacks are "false flag operations" staged by conspirators, usually government or corporate forces, in order to achieve some goal such as justifying increased government surveillance, disarmament of the population, or military action against blamed nations or groups. Crisis actors are claimed in this context to play the part of bystanders or witnesses, emergency response personnel, and (with the aid of stage makeup) wounded victims of the attack.

Popularizers of the conspiracy theory include commentators such as Alex Jones and outlets such as True Pundit.^{[13][14][12][15]} In April 2018, the parents of two children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting launched a lawsuit against Alex Jones for defamation "accusing him and his website InfoWars of engaging in a campaign of 'false, cruel, and dangerous assertions'".^[16]

See also

• Roleplay simulation

References

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