Security tight across L.A. after violence in Boston

This weekend was always going to be a hectic one for police in Los Angeles and Long Beach. With hundreds of thousands of people going to three major sporting and cultural events, authorities began security preparations months ago.

But things took on a much greater weight Monday when two bombs tore through the crowd at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The terrorist attack killed three and wounded more than 170 others. Beyond the carnage, the bombing left Americans feeling skittish and forced law enforcement officials throughout the country to rethink their security plans for large upcoming gatherings like the marathon.

In response, Los Angeles and Long Beach police officials said they have scrambled to increase the number of officers and bolster the security measures they will rely on for the CicLAvia bike ride, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Los Angeles Times Book Festival at USC.

“On Monday, everything changed,” said Eric Matusak, a Long Beach police officer assigned to the department’s special events team. “We felt we had a good security plan in place….Within 24 hours, we were doing this to a whole new level.”

Officials emphasized there is no indication the events are under any increased threat since the Boston bombing. Nonetheless, they said they recognized the need to increase the police presence out of an abundance of caution and, more importantly, to give attendees a sense of safety.

“We will definitely have a heightened, very visible presence. We want people to see us and know we are watching,” said John Thomas, chief of the USC police. “With something as fresh as Boston in people’s minds, they are more attuned to the need for it….The perception of safety is as important as safety itself.”

About 150,000 people are expected to attend the annual book festival, which features panel discussions with authors in lecture halls and stages across the campus. It is the type of event that, like marathons, poses a particular headache to those trying to guard against an attack such as the one in Boston. With huge numbers of people coming and going from various access points and no viable opportunity to funnel people through checkpoints, officers are somewhat hamstrung.

The CicLAvia bike ride will present a similar challenge to the LAPD on Sunday, when a 15-mile stretch of Venice Boulevard from the ocean to downtown will be closed off to automobiles and opened to the roughly 100,000 bikers, joggers and skaters expected to turn out.

LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said that along with boosting the overall number of officers that will be patrolling the course, the Boston bombing led LAPD officials to decide to deploy undercover officers who will mingle among the crowds as well – a tactic not used at previous CicLAvia events.

“I’m not in the ‘hope for the best’ business,” LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said earlier in the week. “I’m in the business of planning for the worst.”

In Long Beach, roughly 175,000 people are expected for a weekend of auto races at the 39th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The sheer size of the event requires months of security planning every year, said Sgt. Aaron Eaton, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department.

On Thursday, police officials did a security walk-through of the sprawling course area and the Police Department’s new mobile emergency operating center. On the side of the large blue vehicle, poster-sized maps detailed the race course and city streets in the area. Another showed the various color-coded passes being issued to attendees. Television screens, smart boards and monitors lined the walls inside the command center. With cooperation from local businesses, authorities will have access to many businesses’ security cameras and will be able to watch much of the grand prix area from inside.

Long Beach police have been working with several federal and state agencies including the FBI and Coast Guard in preparation for the weekend, Eaton said. Bomb-detection dogs will be used to sweep the course and stands, while people should expect longer-than-normal entry lines and closer inspection of backpacks and personal items, he added.

Like Beck and Thomas, Long Beach police Chief Jim McDonnell, a Boston native who has watched the marathon several times from the area where the attacks occurred, stressed the need for people to report suspicious activity.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

joel.rubin@latimes.com