The annual spectacle of the Super Bowl is a magnet for football fans, media outlets, legitimate merchandisers, counterfeit merchandise hawks, ticket scalpers capitalizing on desperate attendee wannabes, “escorts” seeking to be someone’s friend for a fee, and all manner of individuals focused on the fan-fare…all monitored by law enforcement officers from varying levels of government working in tandem to ensure a safe and festive game-day experience in Miami, Florida.
That was a jam-packed nutshell, and traffic woes are part of the mix. So, what does it take to secure a gargantuan event such as Super Bowl LIV?
Just like the San Fran 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, police personnel working the game are armed with a playbook which has been distilled for several years, derived from infinite analysis of prior Super Bowl venues’ strengths and weaknesses. The undertaking of what is necessary for securing any Super Bowl event entails a logistical labyrinth comprising professional personnel all tied together via a communications network complemented by an assemblage of law enforcement. As one may imagine, the price tag for mass security in a post-9/11 era is not cheap.
Hosted with the help of the Miami Police Department and the Miami-Dade Police Department in Dade County, Florida, Super Bowl LIV will be played in the sunny, tropical environment close to the southernmost tip of the United States. As Miami PD recently posted on its Facebook page: “Super Bowl LIV in Miami is officially [days] away! We are preparing all of our resources in order to provide the best service to the residents of Miami and to everyone visiting for the Super Bowl. We’ve got you covered!”
Before retirement from law enforcement, on my off-duty days I worked security at many of the “regular season” Tampa Bay Buccaneers games —my city has been preparing for years, as Super Bowl 2021 will be played here— and every single event was exhausting. The phalanx of fans, funneling traffic in/out of parking lots, and the post-beer misjudgments resulting in fights/arrests all made the time zoom by like a Hail Mary pass.
What I just described is easily thousand-fold with regard to securing a Super Bowl gig.
How do Miami’s law enforcement contingent have all attendees “covered”? Well, they are keen enough to know that the local cops can’t do it alone. As in recent Super Bowl games, police agencies from surrounding areas, state law enforcement officers, and federal agents all comprise the requisite staffing and equipment necessary to ensure everyone’s safety and the preservation of property.
While I was writing this piece, federal agents and local cops scored big at the Super Bowl site. The ICE.gov website published a report regarding taking down a massive counterfeit merchandise ring: “U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced Thursday the seizure of more than 176,000 counterfeit sports-related items, worth an estimated $123 million manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), through a collaborative enforcement operation targeting international shipments of counterfeit merchandise into the United States.
“The seizures were part of Operation Team Player, an ongoing effort developed by the HSI-led Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Center to target the illegal importation and distribution of counterfeit sports merchandise, and were revealed in Miami, Florida, at a joint press conference with the National Football League (NFL), HSI, CBP and the Miami-Dade Police Department.”
Given Florida is enveloped by water with arteries of bays, rivers and canals crisscrossing the terrain, it behooves Super Bowl security operations to deploy maritime law enforcement such as the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs, state police maritime cops, and marine units from various local police agencies.
With the advent of drone use, the FBI has ceased issuing warnings and thus far confiscated 53 drones flying in no-fly zones (“no-drone zones”) set in advance. On game day, a 30-mile radius no-fly zone is among the operational plans and security measures—the only exception is for military and law enforcement aircraft. X-ray machines capable of scanning large delivery trucks for the potential of contraband? Federal agents have been scanning commercial vehicles for weeks.
Lest we forget matters going to the dogs, Super Bowl security operations will include, among other law enforcement canine teams, a bomb-sniffing dog named “Brooklyn.” This five-year-old canine’s nose will help secure the big game and defend attendees against explosives, compliments of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) field office in Sacramento, California.
And for the first time ever in the history of Super Bowl security operations, the Miami law enforcement cadre elicited the assistance of Miami-based Florida International University (FIU) architecture students to replicate the architectural design of the Hard Rock Stadium in the form of 3D modeling. This view enables a scaled-down table-top version of the innards and egresses for cops to consider in the overall scope of operations, answering the many what-ifs stemming from such a grand venue and the populace’s vulnerabilities. Essentially, the model is used for “tactical training” considerations.
Given recent years and several NFL players’ anti-police rhetoric boldly displayed on and off the gridiron, it is a testament nonetheless that cops show up to secure these athletic venues. Talk about going long and looking for the Hail Mary pass in the end zone. As I said before in other articles, despite naysayers’ vile dispositions pertaining to police officials, cops show up. That’ll always be the case, born of a sense of duty and that sacred oath sworn at the beginning.
In the event you’re wondering about the overall cost for law enforcement personnel at the Super Bowl (and the build-up before game day), the non-profit Host Committee shared interesting details about the formative workings to attract/secure the city scoring the Super Bowl in 2020. In years of preparation, the Host Committee engaged in negotiations with NFL folks. Of many features to woo NFL decision-makers and secure the bid in 2020 were some, well, alarming aspects.
One of the stipulations was that the city bear all expenses for police services/protections. Another (which can piss off anyone who is aware of NFL player petulance, especially the anti-cop nonsense) is that “concessions” be made for players. Specifically, the Host Committee and Dade County officials had to agree to pay a multi-million-dollar tab for players to lodge at five-star hotels within the county. That means…taxpayers foot the bill so the NFL players can stay at fancy digs…compliments of the locals. Among those locals, naturally, are police officers. Can you see the bizarre twist? Kinda smells like extortion.
The Miami Herald wrote about this ridiculousness and called it for the proverbial dangling “carrot” that it is. The Herald’s report indicated: “Miami’s Super Bowl Host Committee recently sent invoices totaling $1 million to the county’s budget office from the J.W. Marriott Marquis hotel downtown and Aventura’s Turnberry resort to cover an NFL requirement for subsidized rooms provided to players earning millions for teams owned by billionaires .
“Miami-Dade’s budget director said the county agreed to cover the hotel rooms as part of a $4 million contribution to the local Super Bowl effort, one of many tax-funded concessions to the most popular and wealthy sports league in the country.”
Not only does the NFL go passive with its players’ unabated on- and off-field trashing of our cops, it also demands complimentary law enforcement protections at its hugely profitable Super Bowls. Nice. “The expenses offer a measure of the NFL’s leverage over local political leaders as the league holds out the carrot of Super Bowl exposure and travel in exchange for concessions and promises of free police coverage, waived permit fees, comped rental agreements and even cash payments,” the Miami Herald reported.
How much are this Super Bowl’s costs for police protections? Well, seems among all the “requirements” demanded by the NFL before committing to having the big game in Miami does not have an itemization requirement. The Herald stated, “A projected Host Committee budget submitted to the county in November 2018 has a $12.5 million category of ‘Requirements.’ No expenses are itemized in that portion of the Host Committee’s $24 million budget, the only portion not to include spending details.” I wonder how Miami-Dade County taxpayers feel about this…casual accounting.
Via a public records request by the Miami Herald, however, it was learned, “Miami expects to cover at least $3 million worth of Super Bowl costs tied to extra hours by city staff. About $2 million of that comes from additional police costs.”
Miami Herald staff writers discovered some fascinating data regarding county law enforcement services assigned to the Super Bowl: “Most of the costs come from the county’s police department for extra duty ahead of an event that demands extensive security for its perceived vulnerability to terrorist attacks.
“While the Dolphins and other teams pay up to $50 an hour for off-duty police and regular-season games, Miami-Dade is donating police time for the NFL’s Super Bowl. Miami-Dade police estimated a $2.9 million cost tied to the event.”
There’s more. Given the brouhaha surrounding NFL players who made it to the glitz and glam inherent in Super Bowl Sunday, their stay at taxpayer-funded pricey hotels will also come with county cops safeguarding the teams at the two respective hotels: “The county’s estimated police costs were detailed in a spreadsheet sent in March to Muñoz. It shows $80,000 for dignitary protection, $173,000 for police escorts, and $1.1 million in overtime on game day.
“Police also get deployed to the team hotels, according to Miami records. The city police estimate of costs includes $132,000 of payroll costs for the Marriott Marquis under the category ‘NFC Team.’” The hypocrisy of belittling and de-valuing the police institution and then wanting police protection at zero cost to a multi-billion-dollar brand is astounding.
A few years ago, I researched the law enforcement operations and inherent costs for the Super Bowl. Besides the local law enforcement entities, tons of federal police agencies participate in Super Bowls. The advent of post-9/11 terrorism levels beckon an all-out showing of security and prelude measures to ensure a safe venue for football fans and service providers operating in/around the stadium—a target-rich environment.
Months prior to the big game, federal agents lent their technical expertise to the City of Miami infrastructure, wiring/installing surveillance camera systems throughout the area to help monitor anomalies (think Boston Marathon Bombing) between pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Weeks before game day, federal agents comb the stadium by using bomb-sniffing canines—that continues throughout Super Bowl Sunday. Snipers are positioned in strategic places, scanning the hodge-podge of excitability generated by a populace of ever-moving bodies and flailing extremities. Having the task of isolating one potentially blade of grass among a vast, thickly carpeted area is insurmountable. Yet it must be endeavored. Can you imagine the stress of that? Of course, ticket-takers and security screeners are responsible for ensuring no one is entering with firepower, but humans can be cunning and devise ways to overcome the screeners. That means all necessary steps must be undertaken; preparation for the worst is a staple nowadays. And that is why police training should never idle.
To top it all off, the NFL will be broadcasting a commercial depicting cops as cold killers of black males. If there is any exhibition of grace and humility, it will be vastly displayed when all law enforcers working the game will have millions of eyes upon them…during and after the big-screen portrayal of said ad.
About the purportedly controversial and stirring spot, Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes felt the “ad mischaracterizes how police typically interact with their communities,” according to a Fox News report. The article cited Mr. Yoes as saying, “It’s a tragedy all the way around. This one incident that’s identified [in the ad] makes it appear law enforcement is something other than what it is. That one instance does not define who [police officers] are as a profession.”
According to a CBS News report, “The Super Bowl is the biggest single day in advertising, with companies this year reportedly spending $5.6 million for a 30-second spot during the game. To get the biggest bang for their buck, some advertisers leak teasers, or even the full ads, before the big game to start generating buzz.”
And the NFL requires free police services and safeguarding players lodged at hotels, while also charging exorbitant sums for a half-minute TV spot denouncing law enforcement! Ironic.
Nevertheless, whether in Miami-Dade County, Florida or elsewhere, the cops will always go long in their oath to protect and serve citizens, even ones with pig-skinned projectiles who harbor misguided notions about warriors who save lives on the daily…the same warriors who protect our nation’s rights and freedoms…like the allowability for social justice activists to display propaganda to the world. Nonetheless, law enforcement will be there to go long on the ground, in the air, upon the waterways…ensuring a peaceful event for all.