Security Tightens at the Brickyard

With more than 300,000 people at one event, in a week when federal authorities are on heightened alert for terrorism in the U.S., security will be a huge and complex matter for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

More federal, state and local law enforcement officers will be in place than at the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis on Sept. 30, when police were increased by more than 1,000. And that crowd was “only” about 200,000 because of a different seating configuration for road racing and European and Latin American fans’ fears of coming to the U.S. in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Massive as the plans are for Sunday, “many of our efforts have and will go unnoticed, and that is the intended purpose,” said Jeff Dine, chairman of the Law Enforcement Safety Group, a conglomerate of police forces from the FBI to local, which coordinates security for races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Dine is chief of police of the town of Speedway, Ind., the suburb that surrounds the track.

But when you’ve hosted the world’s largest one-day sports crowds for half a century, as the Speedway has, security and disaster contingency plans are far from new.

In the 1980s, the Indiana State Police estimated crowds for the 500 at up to 400,000.

Police and rescue operations have long been in place for such possibilities as tornadoes ripping through the most expansive grandstands in the world, or shrapnel from race crashes flying into spectator areas.

Area hospitals on race days--the 500 each May, the NASCAR Brickyard 400 each August, and the Grand Prix each September--are prepared to attend to casualties in the thousands, just in case.

And no crowd-control force has a keener, more experienced sixth sense for spotting troublemakers. Imagine four to five Super Bowl crowds in one place on the same day, and that’s Indy. It has been calculated that eight major-league ballparks would fit into the infield here.

Indy’s security system “has been refined during the past 30 years, and it has been copied and applied at other large venues around the country,” Dine said.

“Federal, state and local agencies all work together seamlessly here, and all have reviewed and updated procedures in light of our nation’s heightened state of alert.”

Indy’s first highest-level alert for international terrorism came in 1991, when Vice President Dan Quayle and Gen. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the 500 with Mideast tensions still high in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War.

Sunday, not only will all vehicles entering the infield be subject to inspection, as at NASCAR races, but Speedway security will conduct periodic sweeps of parked vehicles throughout race day.

Spectators entering through pedestrian gates will be subject to search of all coolers, backpacks and handbags, with uniformed police, rather than ticket-takers, supervising the inspections.

Speedway President Tony George has appealed to spectators to arrive earlier than usual--which may be tough to do, considering that historically, when the gates open at 5 a.m., traffic is already at a standstill for miles in every direction on highways and surface streets leading to the Speedway.

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*--* Security Blanket Among the measures apparent to those attending the “500” are: * Strict enforcement of rules limiting any coolers carried in to no more than 14 inches wide by 14 inches high * All coolers, backpacks and handbags will be subject to security inspection at the gates of the Speedway * Additional uniformed officers will be stationed at each gate to monitor inspections * All infield parking will be directed to posted areas, and all vehicles are subject to inspection. Periodic sweeps of parking areas will be carried out by security * A number of other measures will be employed on the grounds to tighten security during the week of the race and on race day, but details will not be released Indianapolis Motor Speedway

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