Total surveillance is the goal at the Super Bowl providing a unique human and technology laboratory to refine social engineering skills. Fans will dutifully submit to security screening, pat-downs and purse searches. ⁃ TN Editor
Yes, the Super Bowl public safety team is watching you.
And not just with the 2,000 fixed cameras throughout downtown Minneapolis and neighboring areas.
About 2,000 of the 3,000 officers working the Super Bowl have an app that allows them to broadcast any video they take of suspicious activity to the command center where 80 individuals will be stationed to monitor the event.
“This is really law enforcement at its finest,” said Minneapolis police Cmdr. Bruce Folkens.
Key law enforcement figures from all over the state are working from the Multi-Agency Command Center near U.S. Bank Stadium to monitor Super Bowl crowds and shift resources as necessary.
Law enforcement officers and state officials aren’t the only ones working there. Representatives from places like Xcel Energy Center and the Mall of America — “anybody we could possibly need to interact with,” said Folkens — are stationed there as well.
About 80 people sit in the center of operations.
“Everybody’s got their own individual lane of traffic where they’re monitoring and controlling and keeping up with what their purview is. And we have a common operating platform that we can electronically talk to each other and post information back and forth,” Folkens said.
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They’re seated as if in a classroom, but rather than a teacher at the front of the room, three large screens show real-time video footage of areas surrounding and inside the stadium.
SCREENS COVER THE CITY
The screen on the left depicts the view of security cameras throughout downtown Minneapolis, including private company security cameras. The screen on the right shows a log of incidents and things to be aware of.
In the center, a screen shows a map of the city. Drones were sent around town all week taking pictures of areas to make the map as up to date as possible.
Green and purple dots on the map depict different types of security cameras. Clicking on those dots zooms in on the video’s view.
Blue and white badges on the screen show real-time movement of officers around town.
