High above the heads of several thousand football fans, University of Nebraska-Lincoln police and the various other agencies comprising game security sit monitoring procedures from their box on the sixth floor of West Memorial Stadium.
Their days are busy and though a uniformed presence can be sobering, it would be a very different gameday without them.
University Police begin planning security for the first September home game nearly six months in advance, as early as the preceding February or March, deconstructing the previous year and putting forward ideas for a more efficient season.
"Part of preparation is discussing what went right or wrong the previous year, what we want to accomplish this year and what new resources are available to us in order to create the best game atmosphere," said Carl Oestmann, director of patrol operations for UNLPD.
Another large and time-consuming part of preparation is the coordination among different law-enforcement and security agencies. Utilizing resources from UNLPD, the Lincoln Police Department, the Lincoln Fire Department, ROTC, an independent security organization called Signal 88 and other federal and state organizations, communication quickly becomes an issue both before and during gamedays.
Three separate briefings are held at the UNL Police headquarters, each filled wall-to-wall with members of every agency.
There, the members are divided into four teams and then instructed on the processes of ejecting and citing intoxicated or disruptive fans, how to properly cite students so that they may be referred to Student Judicial Affairs and even given score predictions (49-7 for Nebraska, according to Saturday's briefing).
The briefings also issue specific advice, such as not putting those with BACs less than or equal to 0.1 in detox, no matter how belligerent.
Finally, the agencies receive instructions and codes for necessary radio contact.
"This year, we have all the agencies on the same radio channel, which is new and really helps coordination," Oestmann said.
"But the biggest and most helpful are the fans themselves and the students. I only have so many eyes out there with a badge, so we really appreciate their input. It helps create a fun environment for everyone."
Once the game starts, officers gather in their event management booth in West Stadium, stationed with GIS mapping of the stadium capable of pinpointing each incident that day, as well as those from previous years.
The incident locations are coded with a specific symbol for each agency.
Each blue shield marks a police incident, a red cross denotes a medical emergency and so on.
"I can pull up all incidents from the last five years and use those as a basis for placing or moving each agency," Oestmann said.
"When I first came here, the procedure would be to have 10 people by East Stadium, 10 people by West Stadium and so on. Now I can look at the records and say, ‘Well, this section seems to have more incidents, so let's put 15 officers there and only five in this other spot.'"
In the hopes of preventing incidents before they reach the stadium, and considering a history of more intoxicated individuals entering the stadium for night games, more officers are placed along the outside of the stadium than in.
In addition to the mapping, security camera footage from throughout the stadium is projected along the walls, each capable of zooming from an image of entire section down to a specific row of fans.
In the event of an incident, "We could see what brand of shoes the person's wearing," Oestmann said.
Halfway through the first quarter, officers in the booth combined GIS mapping and cameras to watch and record the ejection of an intoxicated person turn into assault outside the stadium.
Information about incidents is relayed back and forth between the stadium and the station, where the same mapping and camera feeds are also displayed.
Both centers also have technology to receive reports through text message, the first of which came in near the end of first quarter.
Communication between the command centers is as essential as communication between agencies at the stadium.
It allows police to keep track of reports in the city, as well, and announce events which may affect fans at the game.
A few years ago, for example, a traffic incident that would have prevented many Omaha residents from returning home after the game was announced in the stadium immediately after it happened, advising alternate routes.
"Everything's running very smoothly," said UNL officer Zach Byers, who was stationed on the field Saturday to escort and secure Husker players and coaches.
"There aren't too many incidents on the sidelines."
Even with 12 incidents about half an hour through the game, including alcohol citations and medical incidents like heat stroke and a twisted ankle, officers said things were going well.
Incidents on gamedays can range anywhere from five to 40, Oestmann said, though those figures don't strike him as particularly alarming.
"It's always busy," Oestmann said.
"But comparing the number of situations requiring police assistance to the number of fans we have on gamedays, we're relatively low. I think that more than anything shows the type of fans and ethics NU draws."
iansacks@dailynebraskan.com
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