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NEW JERSEY COPS ■ FEBRUARY 2014
TRAINING STATION AT THE SUPER BOWL
Policing the big game
On Feb. 2, Super Bowl
XLVIII at MetLife Stadium
went off without a hitch,
unless you count the fumbled snap on the first play
of the game or several of
Peyton’s passes.
But the week prior to
the big game, the NFL
Training
transformed MetLife StadiAdviser
um into a compound filled
with VIP areas and tents to
accommodate all of the high-roller
clients that attend these events. This
transformation was very visible, but it
was the invisible transformations made
behind the scenes and out of the eye of
the general public that made Super Bowl
XLVIII a great security success.
When New Jersey/New York was first
announced as the host site for Super
Bowl XLVIII, it was billed as the first
Super Bowl that was to be played outdoors and in a cold weather environment, and the public jumped on board.
At the same time, the law enforcement
community of New Jersey and New York
looked around and said, “The NFL must
be nuts!” To bring a Super Bowl to the
most densely populated, most highly
traveled and most target-rich environment in the world seemed to be a ridiculous proposition. Having such an event
here would attract every type of bad guy
from around the world and bring their
bad deeds to our doorstep.
To the credit of all law enforcement
agencies involved, everyone realized that
securing this venue and all the people
attending was too big for any one agency
to handle. The State of New Jersey quickly authorized the New Jersey State Police
as the lead law enforcement agency. The
State Police handles all Meadowlands
events, and the NFL holds the State
Police security plan as a model for every
other NFL city. MetLife Stadium does
have the benefit of hosting two NFL
teams and the State Police handles twice
as many games as any other stadium, but
the biggest reason for this success is the
partnerships developed with the surrounding Local, County, State and Federal agencies.
Early on in the planning process, there
Bill Fearon
were meetings, and then meetings, and
more meetings, and still more and more
meetings. To list all the agencies represented would take up H