Inside the Super Bowl law enforcement command center
(KMSP) - Dozen of different local and federal law enforcement agencies are involved in the Super Bowl Security. Fox 9 got to look behind the scenes at the command center that will become law enforcement’s nerve center of Super Bowl LII.
In one room, in an undisclosed location, you'll find 80 people representing some 60 different law enforcement agencies. Not just the local police departments from Bloomington, St. Paul, Metro Transit, but the federal agencies as well: the FBI, Homeland Security, FAA. Each event center, Mall of America, Nicollet Mall, the convention center, also has its own command center.
The command center is being run by Bruce Folkens, a commander with Minneapolis police. But in the event of something like a terror attack, it's the FBI that will call the shots.
“If there is a terrorism event, this command and control would switch over to the FBI and we would then be there to support them to support their mission,” said Commander Folkens. “So it’s a little as ‘hey the cars are backing up and the buses are backing up’ – we’ll work with our Metro Transit folks to deal with that. They’re in charge of it. If it gets to an event such as that the FBI would be in charge of it and we’re there to support them.”
It’s the technology that is really impressive. They can pull up a map of U.S. Bank Stadium and then get a real-time view from one of 400 cameras. They can essentially do that with downtown Minneapolis as well, which has more than 2,000 cameras.
They've also turned all 3,000 officers into their eyes and ears, thanks to two local tech companies, Geo Comm, which geo-mapped all of downtown Minneapolis, and Securonet , an app that allows tracking of the officers. The officers can also send a real-time view from their smart phone. This gives the command center a real situational awareness of what's happening outside that room.
Commander Folkens says Minneapolis will be able to keep this technology after the Super Bowl which he believes will forever change how they handle large scale and big events.