PASADENA, Calif. — Another major sporting event, another case of additional security to combat recent mass shootings.
This time it’s occurring at the Rose Bowl, arguably college football’s most storied event of the season. The game is slated for Friday between Iowa and Stanford.
For the first time, the Rose Bowl and the Rose Parade — a 5.5 mile procession before the game — were designated as top-level security concerns by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Mark Selby, deputy special agent in charge of the agency’s investigative bureau in Los Angeles. The Super Bowl was also deemed a top security concern.
Reuters reports the additional security measures include “rapid response” teams along the parade route, dozens of video surveillance cameras, bomb-sniffing dogs and radiation-detection devices, according to law enforcement officials.
Approximately 700,000 are expected to attend the Rose Parade. At least 90,000 will file into the stadium for the game.
No credible threat has been made against the Rose Bowl, but Selby said the security measures are the most in the 100-plus-year history of the events. Additional security measures were planned for this year’s Rose Bowl back in 2014, but the shootings in San Bernardino prompted more security personnel to be assigned.
“The San Bernardino event sort of upped the ante,” Selby told Reuters.
