As recent terror attacks have proven, large public events such as marathons and fireworks displays can be targets for violence. And as 200,000 people prepare to descend on San Diego for this week’s Comic-Con event, the city is making sure that attendees stay safe through increased security measures.
San Diego’s local CBS affiliate reports that the city’s police department is amping up the presence of law enforcement, with large numbers of uniformed officers patrolling the area on foot, on bikes, in patrol cars, and on motorcycles — more officers than the city has ever deployed at a single time before. But according to Lt. Paul Connelly, there will be many security measures the public won’t notice, including numerous plainclothes officers, as well as hidden surveillance technology. These procedures have been in place in the city since the January 2015 terror attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.
“We do look at all of our events, and we’ve taken extra measures to insure that the public’s safe, and we don’t have an incident like that here in San Diego,” Connelly told CBS 8. “We’ll also be inspecting costume weapons to make sure that they’re not real, or they couldn’t hurt somebody potentially, and [officers will] tag them as [attendees] enter the convention center to indicate that they’ve been inspected.”
Comic-Con already has a notoriously long list of rules for attendees, and always requires that weapons and props be non-functional. Rolling luggage and strollers are banned, as are hoverboards and drones. The police are also pleading with convention-goers to follow the familiar — and frankly clichéd — mantra, “If you see something, say something.” It all may sound a little Big Brother, but following incidents like a car plowing into the crowd during 2014’s Zombie Walk (an event has been revived this year for potentially the last time), authorities aren’t taking any chances. Whether or not any of these new procedures could hinder attendees’ enjoyment of the event is up for debate. We’ll see how it all shakes out later this week.
(Via: CBS 8)
