Stadium Security Focus Group
On Wednesday, March 27, over 40 participants joined the SENTRY Stadium Security Focus Group virtually. Facilitated by SENTRY Practitioner Advisory Board (PAB) Chair George Naccara, the event gathered four stadium security experts to discuss current and future challenges in creating a safe and secure stadium experience. Panelists included three security representatives from the NFL and MLB, who chose to remain anonymous, and Eddie Washington, Executive Director of the Division of Public Safety and Security at the University of Michigan.
SENTRY Director Michael Silevitch set the tone for the discussion, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between researchers and subject matter experts. He highlighted the opportunity to work together to identify advanced technologies and best practices and stressed the need to future-proof these technologies to address new and emerging threats.
Discussion began around the most prevalent threats to stadiums. Panelists raised concerns about potential unforeseen threats and the need to stay vigilant against creative and new attempts by individuals or small groups with malicious intent.
Collaboration for Effective Security Enhancement
Collaboration among government agencies, researchers, and security stakeholders is crucial for effectively enhancing stadium security measures. Panelists discussed the power of integrating and layering multiple available technologies to create the most effective stadium security systems.
Jim Bamberger, DHS Public Area Security & Infrastructure Protection Branch Chief, expounded on the technological capabilities available to detect and mitigate threats like drones. Attendees agreed that applying the latest technology to stadium venues is a multifaceted process that requires alignment of best practices with policy and public opinion. Panelists acknowledged that current policy presents challenges to making the latest detection and mitigation technology accessible for small-scale stadiums and events.
Adapting to New and Emerging Threats
During the panel discussion, significant attention was given to the impending threats posed to stadiums by drones. The panelists asked for input and support from attendees to advance drone detection technology and explore its potential applications.
Michael Silevitch echoed this call for collaboration to advance technology and access, expressing enthusiasm about the potential opportunity to extend emerging drone security measures beyond stadiums and adapt them for use at other soft targets like schools or places of worship.
Architectural Design for Stadium Security
SENTRY Security Architectural Design Research Lead Michelle Laboy described active research efforts for school security. Her team studies the architecture of schools to make recommendations for enhancing security through architectural designs, offering to do the same analysis for stadiums. Attendees enthusiastically responded to this suggestion, describing existing collaborations with architects and discussing how to expand upon these efforts to improve stadium security through building design.
Building design directly impacts evacuation techniques, a critical component of stadium safety. A panelist shared that their team has used modeling software to conduct simulations of an emergency egress from a stadium. These simulations proved extremely helpful in planning for physical stadium changes. Even updates, such as where to place a new advertisement, where to position a surveillance camera, or where to station law enforcement, contribute to the overall safety of the venue.
SENTRY Research and Virtual Sentry Framework
The session ended with a discussion of how SENTRY researchers can support these stadium security stakeholders in their goal of creating a safer environment for patrons. Each panelist described their command center and security operations, articulating challenges that SENTRY research might help address. Identified opportunities included improving the interoperability of communications and supporting data acquisition and integration to allow security teams to leverage information more powerfully.
Eddie Washington emphasized the power of data in the security landscape, explaining, “Collective data can be used to catalog, forecast, and predict things that we can ultimately prevent.” Others agreed that improving how data is collected and sorted to relay actionable information could prevent catastrophic events from occurring.
SENTRY’s vision of a Virtual Sentry Framework will ultimately provide this type of support to security stakeholders. The framework strives to lessen the security response burden on venue personnel and to provide essential security information in a specific, timely, and effective way. Utilizing existing resources and sourcing data from venues defined as soft targets and crowded places, such as stadiums, will support our endeavor to provide rapid threat detection and evidence-based recommendations on the best response for mitigating negative outcomes.
