Stampede upgrades security — but few are likely to notice

CALGARY — The Calgary Stampede is bringing in new security measures to prevent people from using vehicles as weapons, but most people probably won’t notice any changes.

The Stampede begins Friday and will run for 10 days. During that time, the exhibition grounds will become equivalent to Alberta’s third-largest city, with more than 100,000 visitors a day.

“You’ll note that there are some changes at the entrances. Some of them you’ll see that are very visible and some of them more show up as landscaping,” Tom Sampson, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said Tuesday.

Where there was once a clear path at the main entrance to the Stampede grounds, there are now several large concrete planters filled with flowers.

“A combination of cement barriers, but again trying to make them look more in line with the decor of the Stampede,” Sampson said.

“We’re fully aware of the requirement for vehicle mitigation and mitigating vehicle attacks, and steps will be taken to ensure that would be most difficult.”

Sampson said organizers looked closely at terrorist attacks in Canada as well as in the United States and Europe, especially those in which large vehicles were used as a weapon to run down pedestrians.

“There is nothing, I understand from police, nothing to indicate that anything at the Stampede is above [the usual terrorism threat] level whatsoever, so it should be a good and safe Stampede. But at the same time, our job is to plan for the worst and expect the best.”

Stampede spokesman Jim Laurendeau said there will be both walk-through and wand metal detectors used on bags being brought into the park. There will also be dozens more video cameras added to hundreds already in place.

Mother Nature is on the radar as well.

“We do have a weather station and weather-monitoring equipment here at the park and a meteorologist here as well. We’re in constant contact with Environment Canada and others. We pay a lot of attention to the weather at Stampede time,” said Laurendeau, vice-president of park planning. “Weather events are the most frequent public safety issue that we handle.”

The 2018 Calgary Stampede runs from July 6 until July 15.