Security boost for Chicago music festival

In response to the Las Vegas mass shooting, the second-in-command of Chicago police announced Monday that the department is bolstering security measures for the city’s upcoming Lollapalooza music festival.

The festival begins this weekend in downtown Chicago’s Grant Park. The open-air venue is surrounded by tall business buildings and hotels, similar to the Route 91 Harvest festival grounds, site of the Oct. 1 mass shooting, which left 58 concertgoers dead and more than 700 injured.

“We never had eyes on hotels before,” Anthony Riccio, first deputy superintendent of Chicago police, said in a Monday press conference. “We always assumed that if there was going to be a problem, it was going to be from right inside or right outside of the event. I think Vegas added a whole new level of concern for us.”

Last year, the Las Vegas gunman booked a room overlooking the Chicago festival ahead of his Oct. 1 attack from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort. The gunman also booked a room overlooking the Life Is Beautiful festival in downtown Las Vegas, which took place the weekend before Route 91.

In Chicago this year, spotlights will illuminate the buildings that surround the festival grounds, Riccio said. Teams of officers will also stand by with hotel staff so that — in the event of a similar attack — they will be ready to “storm the room.”

SECURITY

And within the festival grounds, four times as many undercover officers will be working compared to last year, Riccio said.

This year’s Life Is Beautiful festival starts Sept. 21. Metropolitan Police Department Deputy Chief Andrew Walsh said Monday that teams of Las Vegas officers will be scanning nearby buildings for threats, and separate teams will be standing by, ready to take out potential threats.

But the department declined to discuss the “location, equipment and capabilities” of those teams, citing security concerns.

“In the post-1 October environment in which we now operate, we have reviewed and continued to review our plans and preparation for all large events, especially those that occur outdoors in the vicinity of high-rise hotels and residential properties,” Walsh said.

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@ reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby.