TRAINING BEFORE THE BIG GAME


Some of the Super Bowl preparations begin as soon as the last one is over. Francisco “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, director of the CBP’s New Orleans Air & Marine Branch, has been involved in this long-term planning twice. He served as the CBP AMO director on site during two Super Bowls, 2013 in New Orleans and 2017 in Houston. “There are meetings almost the whole year, so when it comes down to the last week, we know what we’re doing,” Rodriguez said.


Law enforcement and emergency personnel from a wide variety of agencies arrived in Atlanta on the Monday before the Sunday Super Bowl this year. They


48 May/June 2019


spent the next several days conducting various training exercises and scenarios to ensure all participating agencies and departments were operating in accordance with the Super Bowl Operations Plan. Participating agencies included Homeland Security, TSA, FAA, FBI, National Guard, state patrol, sheriff’s departments, city police and a variety of first responders.


A strong foundation already was in place with operation plans, common familiarity with the Incident Command System organizational structure, and plenty of previous experience (especially


CBP with its daily illegal drug-detection duties). However, there still is a need to train together. “Coordination is a big part of any type of national security special event,” Grantham said. For example, the numerous participants need to coordinate radio frequencies and ensure video and camera equipment is compatible.


Several local, state, and federal law enforcement teams took advantage of the opportunity to practice their fast roping skills out of the back of the Black Hawks. CBP provided specially equipped aircraft and crewmembers for this training, Grantham related. These skills provide the quickest


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88