Super Bowl Public Safety Planning

Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts joined Minneapolis Police Commander Scott Gerlicher and Bloomington Deputy Chief Mike Hartley in sharing with us an overview of all the preparations and planning that has been taking place over the past two years in advance of the Super Bowl coming to the “Bold North”.
Preparations began two years ago by observing the past two Super Bowl events. There are 41 different resource planning groups working on various parts of the system including planning for unexpected weather, medical emergencies, illness, accidents, terrorism, transportation, housing, traffic, and much more. Our event will differ from last year’s event because our stadium is in the middle of our downtown area. And, that adds several additional possible complications. Our security forces are being supplemented through assistance from 60 additional police agencies throughout out state. All will be under one authority with centralized communication so all are operating in tandem with one another. The officers even have special Super Bowl badges.
This is likely to be the largest deployment of Federal resources ever. And, they are provided at no expense to the local community. The MN National Guard will also be present. All other funding is provided by the local community and the MN Super Bowl Host Committee. This event will likely be the “biggest party in the world” with about 1 million visitors expected over the entire “Experience” from January 27 to February 4 with 10 days of jammed packed activities all over the Twin City area. The airport is planning for a fivefold increase in air traffic on the Monday after the Super Bowl.