Hi-Tech War on Terror
SPORTS STADIUMS
Potential target: Sporting events in the U.S. routinely attract large crowds, with the largest venue, Indianapolis Speedway, capable of accommodating more than 250,000 fans.
Vulnerabilities: Terrorists could smuggle weapons or explosives into a stadium, or attack the exterior with a car bomb. In 2002, Basque separatists exploded a car bomb in the crowd teaming near Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid hours before a soccer game. Nine people suffered minor injuries, but miraculously, no one was seriously hurt or killed. In 2006, a posting on the Internet warned of radiological bomb attacks against seven National Football League stadiums, but fortunately the threat was never carried out.
Existing protection: A study published in the Journal of Homeland Security in 2007 found that many college sports arenas had weaknesses in their security, ranging from inadequate searches of fans and their belongings to a lack of video surveillance and intrusion detection systems.
Future solutions: The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been working to develop standoff explosives detection, in which sensors screen each person arriving at an event, looking for warning signs such as a heat signature that would indicate he or she may be carrying explosives. Additionally, next-generation video surveillance systems may employ analytic techniques to detect anomalies—such as abandoned bags, people moving in group formation, or someone moving against the flow of the crowd—that may indicate an attack before it occurs.
