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Facilities execs discuss security strategies

Discussions at a sports security conference last week made clear that deadly attacks in Paris and Orlando remain top of mind in the facilities business.

Terrorist attacks, and how to stop them, were a frequent topic both on stage and among attendees at the seventh annual National Sports Safety & Security Conference and Exhibition. The event, produced by the University of Southern Mississippi’s National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, drew an event record 400 people, a mix of stadium managers, security directors, consultants, law enforcement officials and Homeland Security executives.

As part of the program, Salim Toorabally, the crowd manager in Paris who became an international hero after he stopped a suicide bomber from entering Stade de France during attacks in Paris last November, told his story and accepted an award from conference organizers.

A panel focused on the Paris attacks, and keynote speaker Mick O’Connell, Interpol director of operational support and analysis, gave an update on worldwide hot spots for terrorist activity.

Closer to home, consultants and crowd management vendors remain concerned about soft targets at sports facilities across North America, especially back-of-house operations that may not be monitored as closely on game days as the public entrances.

Security consultant Martin Stolmack points to the nonprofits that work concessions in sports that may not conduct background checks on their volunteers as a potential window for terrorist activity. He pointed to a 1984 bioterror attack that sickened 750 people at multiple Oregon restaurants as one example of food service being exploited for such a purpose.

“I see soft targets out there,” said Chuck Rogers, director of business development at Staff Pro, a crowd management firm. “Getting somebody on staff who isn’t background checked thoroughly. Maybe they got a stolen ID and got into the back of house and doesn’t belong there. When you see these [suicide] teams with a coordinated effort, that’s scary … you’ve got to harden the target.”

FRENCH CONNECTION: Toorabally, the 43-year-old French security guard, provided a hard target — his body — when he blocked the suicide bomber from entering Stade de France last fall during a France-Germany soccer friendly.

His actions saved potentially thousands of lives after the bomber walked away and detonated his vest of explosives, killing himself and one other person outside the stadium.

It was the first day on the job for Toorabally, a 13-year veteran of crowd management, when the terrorists struck Paris.

Since that time, Toorabally has met with French President Francois Hollande, among others, and was a guest of the NFL at its annual security meetings.

Most recently, he was assigned to work the Euro 2016 championships at Stade de France, the same stadium where he stopped the bomber. At first, he did not want to return to the venue, but in the end he did work the event.

COWBOYS AND NINERS: The operators of AT&T Stadium and Levi’s Stadium are both considered leaders in the security space.

The Cowboys’ mobile application contains a function that fans can use to report issues directly to the stadium command center. The 49ers, meanwhile, by virtue of having the NFL’s newest facility, were among the first teams to install walk-through metal detectors at their stadium. The NFL has required that all 31 stadiums have those machines in place by the start of the 2017 season.

Jim Mercurio, the 49ers’ vice president of stadium operations, received an award at the conference for the 49ers’ efforts to provide a safe environment for their patrons. Individual accolades aside, some things still keep him up at night with regard to security issues.

“It’s the instability of people,” Mercurio said. “There’s a divide. It’s unpredictable in some cases. They say predictable is preventable, and right now, it doesn’t feel like much is predictable anymore. Everybody talks about having to be right 100 percent of the time, and the bad guys just have to be right once. We’re trying to be in front of those threats and trying to mitigate those things.”

When asked what keeps him up at night, Paul Turner, the Cowboys’ senior director of event operations, said, “Our threat is pretty low tech. It could be a single individual that wants to come out and cause harm.”

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