Here's what security for Super Bowl LI looks like
HOUSTON – For days now, the helicopters have lingered over various parts of Houston, drawing questions, complaints and stares. To residents and visitors alike, these haven’t looked like the typical traffic-hour camera crews or the medical flights that occasionally streak across the skyline. Instead, these air patrols have been lower and more numerous, seemingly surveying a grid block-by-block or simply hovering in place indefinitely.
Beyond the small army of plain-clothes policemen on the ground, they’re one of the most obvious staples of Houston’s Super Bowl security.
“Those are big brother keeping us safe,” Houston police chief Art Acevedo said Tuesday. “It’s the federal government. Customs is helping us out with the aircraft. They’ve got a mission [and] we’re not going to say specifically what their mission is, but they’re actually working with us to keep the city safe.”
“There’s absolutely nothing to be concerned about,” added Sean McElroy, the federal coordinator for U.S. Homeland Security. “It’s just routine monitoring.”
Whether it’s heightened concern over one-off terrorist events or simply having a secured environment for inevitable political protests, the consistent eye-in-the-sky monitoring is just one of the ways that Super Bowl security continues to be ramped up. And it’s a continually changing task that has been dramatically reshaped since 2004, when the NFL’s biggest game last visited this city. Back then? The police presence was smaller. There were no VIPER (Violent Intervention Proactive Enforcement Response) units – a subset of heavily equipped law enforcement that deals with the most violent situations. There was no federal body devoted strictly to cyber terrorism monitoring the event. Even the barricades were different, consisting of water-filled barrels.
Now? All of those things exist. And the barricades alone might speak to how much security has been amped up in response to terrorist events over the past year. Houston added a total of three miles of hardened security perimeters around venues this year, NFL chief security officer Cathy Lanier said. What that means is most venues where spectators mass are now protected by heavy concrete barriers – creating a deterrent for someone who might choose to weaponize a vehicle by driving it into crowds of people.
That’s a lesson learned over the past year from horrific incidents in places like Nice, France, and Berlin, Germany, where spectators were targeted at events by terrorists who used vehicles to commit their acts. “Hardening” part of the Houston Super Bowl event has resulted in just that – placing massive barricades in place with forklifts, specifically designed to stop vehicles from entering areas where spectators gather. Police will also sweep wide swaths of space outside the hardened sites – which is a holdover tactic that began at the Super Bowl following the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
But this Super Bowl has seen additional scrutiny on barriers, in hopes of preventing a repeat of vehicle-based attacks seen elsewhere.
“We actually have concrete jersey barriers,” Acevedo said. “I think that in years past, you might have seen that we used water [barrel] barriers. Quite frankly, the only people who are going to stop for water barriers are people that want to stop for water barriers – especially when you see the new tactics being employed. It’s more costly, but we’ve had to up our tactics and change our tactics to harden these targets.”
This is what it means for the Super Bowl to fall under federal guidelines as a Tier 1 national security event. It means a massive local law-enforcement presence, reinforced by homeland security, the FBI and all the branches of intelligence. And that means that if needed, almost anything can be delivered to keep a Super Bowl safe. From barricades to heavily armed forces to reconnaissance drones and hovering helicopters.
“What it allows us to do is bring over 41 departments – law enforcement, intelligent assets – so we have a variety of capabilities that we brought in support of this event,” said Chip Fulghum, deputy under secretary for management of Homeland Security. “Everything from more canine teams, more VIPER units, we’re providing air support for the event, cyber security support for the event – all the capabilities that the federal government has.”
There might not be a better time to have the capabilities, considering the timing of President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order barring citizens of some Muslim-based countries from entering the United States. NFL and law enforcement officials anticipate there will be political protests stemming from the order. While there have been protests in the past, the timing of this latest political lightning rod has added another wrinkle to an already complicated task.
Acevedo said preparations have been made to keep the peace during any gatherings, but he also issued a warning to those who might attempt to inject violence into or against the protests.
“To those that might want to come in from the outside to cause problems in Houston, know this: You will be greatly outnumbered by activists that care about their message,” Acevedo said. “[People] that care about what they want to convey and they don’t want their protest … to be hijacked by anyone that comes here to cause problems.
“They’ll be the first ones to stand up to anybody. I think they’ll do it before the police department does. But we’re ready [too].”
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