Risk Analysis Center Provides Protection For Super Bowl
The City of Tampa, Fla. Police Department partnered with Digital Sandbox Inc., a provider of dynamic risk management solutions for homeland security, to manage all risk elements for Super Bowl XLIII.
Digital Sandbox's Risk Analysis Center, a suite of tools, analytics and information, served as the core risk management solution for the NFL's premier event. Tampa was responsible for managing risk over a two-week period at dozens of events and venues throughout the region. The police department led a coordinated effort by dozens of local law enforcement, fire and emergency management agencies, state agencies, and federal agencies.
"The key to managing security during a massive event is ensuring a collective understanding of our risks, and coordinating the scores of agencies involved in mitigating these risks," said Maj. John Bennett of the Tampa Police Department, incident commander for the Super Bowl.
To meet this multi-agency challenge, Major Bennett and his team relied on Digital Sandbox's Risk Analysis Center.
Using the RAC, Digital Sandbox deployed a Common Operating Picture -- a unified system for tracking and communicating risks and analyzing emerging threat situations over the two-week event.
"We installed our COP at command posts throughout the city, at the state level and in the federal government's Joint Operations Center. Officials at all levels had a common view of the situation," said Anthony F. Beverina, Digital Sandbox's president and co-founder. "By layering real-time intelligence and public safety message traffic over our critical infrastructure and risk data, we were able to provide the command an unprecedented level of threat and risk awareness."
Digital Sandbox achieved this level of assurance by working closely with the Tampa Police Department, state and local organizations and more than 20 federal agencies.
Leading up to the game, the Tampa region had already catalogued more than 4,300 critical infrastructure assets in the RAC, assessed 116 as most likely to be affected by the Super Bowl, and developed special in-depth profiles for the 19 highest-profile locations. This allowed the COP system to provide detailed views and incident tracking of more than thirty separate events being held in these venues.
In addition to the COP system, for which Digital Sandbox also integrated technology from partners ESRI and Swan Island Networks, Digital Sandbox also provided 85 customized risk management "Playbooks" -- detailed descriptions of potential threats and advanced security response scenarios -- to commanders and stakeholders at the federal, state and local level as well as the mayor, the NFL and state agencies.
"We have worked with Digital Sandbox for five years building an extensive and comprehensive picture of our region's risk hot spots," Bennett said. "Deploying this knowledge in Playbooks allowed us to put actionable information in the hands of the key decision makers."
"Tampa is one of our most proactive customers," Beverina said. "Their investments in automation allowed us to generate a timely and accurate view of their risks at all times. We are proud to have demonstrated this new level of dynamic risk management capability in such a high-profile setting."
The RAC technology Digital Sandbox showcased at the Super Bowl, including the new COP module, also ran successfully at the Outback Bowl in Tampa in December.