Selig sends security task force to Dodger Stadium
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With the Dodgers opening their first homestand since the brutal attack on a San Francisco Giants fan in the stadium parking lot, Commissioner Bud Selig has dispatched a task force to Dodger Stadium to review security procedures there.
John McHale Jr., executive vice president of administration for Major League Baseball, is the leader of a six-man delegation that will remain on site through the weekend and report back to Selig. The delegation includes MLB experts in security and stadium operations.
In the wake of the beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow, the Los Angeles Police Department has essentially taken over Dodger Stadium security in the short term, with the Dodgers footing the bill for the increased police presence. The Dodgers also have retained former LAPD Chief William J. Bratton to develop a long-term security plan.
McHale said he met Thursday with Bratton and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and spoke several times with Selig. McHale said Selig is not interested in usurping the role of Bratton or of the LAPD.
“We’re not trying to duplicate anything they’re doing,” McHale said. “We’re trying to act as the eyes and ears and feet of the commissioner, and to use our presence to demonstrate to the Dodgers how much he is concerned about what happened and how eager he is to help.”
McHale said he and other MLB officials had met with Selig “on a daily basis” since the attack. Selig ultimately decided he wanted an on-site analysis when the Dodgers returned home, McHale said.
McHale said it is important that the Dodgers promptly hire a full-time head of security, a position that has been vacant for four months.
“I think it is,” McHale said. “I think they know that it is.”
[Updated at 2:25 p.m. “We welcome the input of Major League Baseball on all issues and are working very closely with them,” said Dodger spokesman Josh Rawitch.]
-- Bill Shaikin