The Risk Analysis Center software, combined with GIS, integrated different data types including aerial photos of the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida
GIS Software Scores Big for Super Bowl XLIII
ESRI's Jesse Theodore describes the role geographic information systems played in managing security at the USA's biggest and most famous American football game
One of the world's biggest football games — attended by tens of thousands of fans and watched by millions around the globe — involves much more than three-plus hours of competition.
For two weeks before the Super Bowl, the host city becomes a sports mecca. Dozens of pregame events occur in multiple locations, including TV shows, media events, National Football League (NFL)-hosted activities, fan celebrations, and parties. With all these high-profile gatherings under way, the community can become a target for all kinds of disruptive and destructive activities. Multiple law enforcement organizations and other government agencies must plan far in advance to provide the security that makes such a major sporting event a safe and enjoyable experience for fans.
To prepare for last February's Super Bowl, the City of Tampa, Florida, including the city's police department, spent years laying the groundwork for a security information system that would give officials up-to-the-minute situational awareness.
Geographic information system (GIS) software —specifically, ArcGIS from ESRI—played a winning role in that system.
The software was fully integrated with ESRI business partner Digital Sandbox, Inc.'s Risk Analysis Center (RAC) software, a primary security information system that linked the Emergency Command Center and more than 10 command posts located throughout Tampa with real-time data and analysis about security threats.
The two systems worked seamlessly to supply the Tampa Unified Incident Command staff, manned primarily by Tampa police, with a map-based common operating picture (COP) and enhanced situational awareness for monitoring events on the ground as they happened. What once involved many systems working independently became a seamless platform of intelligence and analytic tools.
"The ability to integrate GIS with our risk management solution supplied a unique situational awareness capability," said Anthony F. Beverina, president and cofounder, Digital Sandbox. "Instead of pockets of knowledge or separate information flows, there was one complete framework benefiting the many different agencies managing security. The speed of information capture and exchange was many times faster than what was previously available."
A GIS-Based Common Operating Picture
The Tampa Police Department coordinated Super Bowl security for a team that included personnel from more than 20 state and federal agencies; the NFL; and the game's competitors, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.
"The key to managing security during a massive event is ensuring a collective understanding of our risks and coordinating the scores of agencies involved in mitigating these risks," said Major John Bennett of the Tampa Police Department, incident commander for Super Bowl XLIII. "We have been working with the Digital Sandbox team [members] for over five years to lay the foundation for this capability, and they were able to deploy a solution that met our needs exactly."
To pull off such a large coordinated effort with so many players, the Tampa Police Department and Digital Sandbox reviewed the RAC solution a year before the Super Bowl and mapped out a series of modifications.
First, both organizations prioritized 119 of the more than 4,300 items in Tampa's critical infrastructure asset catalog that would receive additional review for accuracy and completeness. Next, they further scoped that list to identify 19 top-priority assets, including 17 key event venues, for enhanced threat and risk assessments.
After the assessments were complete, Digital Sandbox produced a series of risk playbooks that supplied detailed information about potential risks and response capabilities for the events and venues. The risk playbooks were supplemented by a master timeline that showed the exact start and end times for all Super Bowl-related events during the three weeks leading up to the game; more than 500 master timelines were distributed to security personnel to coordinate efforts.
More than 85 individually customized playbooks were created. Recipients included Tampa police, the mayor's office, NFL and team security officers, commanders in the fire and emergency services departments, and representatives of federal agencies that were coordinating security with Tampa police.
The staff at command posts throughout the Tampa area, as well as users working remotely in the field, linked into the system by simply logging on to a secure Web browser. As new information, maps, aerial photography, or satellite imagery became available, it was automatically updated and accessible via the system. Personnel easily observed traffic, airspace, waterways, and crowds by using the map interface. Staff also monitored and investigated alerts, potential leads, and unusual or suspicious events as the information streamed into the COP via RSS or other live data feeds.
Police, fire, and emergency medical calls for service could be viewed in real time on the map, with related incident information available in a text-based dialog box. Locations of critical assets, points of interest, hospitals, fire stations, and traffic advisories were all available.
Police officers performing a vehicle stop would immediately log their incident data into their vehicle data terminals. The ArcGIS software-based COP would instantly consume that data and make it available to all command posts and devices accessing the system. Users could see the location of that incident on the digital map as well as read the details about the traffic stop. RAC also dynamically correlated nearby asset and risk information and flagged it on the ArcGIS display for optional drill-down.
Smooth Information Flow
For commanders monitoring Super Bowl-related events, GIS helped keep information flowing smoothly from the field to the command posts and back again, as well as between multiple information systems and data feeds. All the map layers, aerial photography, and incident information were available 24/7, on demand, to staff via secure Internet connections in the command center and command posts.
The system kept agencies on the same page as dozens of incidents unfolded during the Super Bowl. For every incident, GIS and the COP helped with security and law enforcement activities.
"For years now, we've had all kinds of systems and data to draw on but no central hub or set of disciplined processes to make sense of it. Digital Sandbox pulled it all together and simplified it through the GIS interface, giving us just the right information we needed when we needed it, in a context that allowed us to do our jobs better," said Bennett.
"This worked well for the Super Bowl, and it is designed for similar types of large events," said Beverina. "If you used the London Olympics as an example, a risk-aware GIS-based COP can provide the same benefits for preparedness, situational awareness, and communications. These capabilities elevate the effectiveness of organizations doing large-scale security."
