Cold weather adds wrinkle to public safety, security planning for Super Bowl LII

Following two years of planning to ensure public safety at Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, the FBI recently hosted a preparation exercise with officers from every local, state and federal agency involved in security for the 10 days of planned events.

During the in-person exercise at the city’s convention center, agencies ran through their responses to simulated scenarios ranging from active shooter situations to reuniting parents lost children to ensuring public safety amid freezing temperatures.

“An event like this is about planning, about preparation, and about partnerships,” Rick Thornton, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division, said. “Each organization brings its unique abilities to the table, but it requires tremendous teamwork and cooperation to pull everything together into a unified whole.”

Because the Super Bowl is not typically held in northern cities, the expected cold weather has added an extra layer of required preparedness planning. Pre-screening stations have been moved to indoor locations so fans don’t have to wait outside and warming huts have been placed near venues.

“I think we have done our best to think of just about every contingency, natural or manmade,” said Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) Scott Gerlicher, overall public safety coordinator for Super Bowl LII. “The Super Bowl is just a massive operation, and very complicated, especially in our area.”

MPD is the lead agency in charge of Super Bowl security. The FBI will lead any situations involving terrorism, cyber attacks or major crimes.

“We have planned for this to ensure that nothing happens,” Joe Rivers, an assistant special agent in charge of the Minneapolis Division, said. “But if something does happen, some kind of mass casualty incident or terrorism event, then there is a huge shift built into the program to continue to support the event but to transition to crisis response and investigation.”