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Dogs, jets and robots to keep Super Bowl safe

Gavin moved quickly around the spacious convention center, searching for a hidden bomb. Near a glass box containing a fire extinguisher, he sniffed the air and abruptly sat down. Inside was half a kilogram of live high explosives, wrapped in black plastic.

For successfully finding the "bomb," Gavin got a treat from his handler, Special Agent L.A. Bykowsky of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). His training exercise over, the seven-year-old golden Labrador retriever is ready for duty conducting bomb-sniffing sweeps for the Super Bowl and its related events and hotels.

Gavin will be among 66 specialized canine bomb teams working as part of a massive local, state and federal security effort to protect the Super Bowl from terrorists, foreign and domestic. The dog teams are one element of a 15cm-thick security plan, which includes jet fighters and helicopters, tactical weapons teams, mobile bomb labs and robots, high-tech X-ray machines and sensors, intelligence databases and hundreds of uniformed police officers.

"We don't have any specific threat to this event," said Julie Torres, chief of the ATF's Miami office and the designated federal coordinator for Super Bowl security.

"It is the biggest event in the nation as far as a sporting event. It is vulnerable as far as any terrorist activity. We have to plan excessively so we can provide proper security," she said.

Those plans began to take shape two weeks after last year's Super Bowl in Detroit. This Sunday's game is the sixth since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which forever changed the security landscape for any major US public event. The Super Bowl is a Level One US security event, right behind a presidential inauguration in importance.

The trick for planners is to keep the game an enjoyable sporting event while still projecting a secure atmosphere. That means fans will see a significant police presence, but much more will be going on behind the scenes.

More than two dozen federal, state and local agencies are involved in security along with the NFL's own personnel. Milt Ahlerich, the NFL's vice president for security, said on Monday that the league had hired 3,000 of its own personnel -- part of US$6 million budgeted for Super Bowl security -- to handle chores ranging from running the magnetometers to screening fans at Dolphin Stadium.

Fans are prohibited from bringing most items into the game, other than a small bag that is subject to search. Traditional tailgating with cooking fires, tents and the like is banned in the parking lots, Ahlerich said.

On game day, Federal Aviation Administration flight restrictions for 16km around the stadium go into effect two hours before game time and end just before midnight.

One wild card in Miami is whether there might be celebrations, or even rioting, among the thousands of Cuban exiles in the city if Cuban President Fidel Castro dies before the game.

"There is a plan, and it's not going to affect the game at all -- game day and all the events leading up to game day," said Torres, who was born in Cuba and moved to Miami with her family at age 5.
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