Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
South Florida arenas plan no changes.
Monday’s bombing outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, occurred weeks before a particularly strong summer concert season in South Florida, but local law enforcement officials say proper security measures are in place to protect fans at shows by stars including U2, Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Coldplay.
The explosion outside Manchester Arena left 22 people dead and 59 injured. Among the dead, authorities said, was a 22-year-old man who reportedly targeted exiting fans armed with a nail-laden bomb inside a backpack. The incident took place just after Grande, a Boca Raton native, had finished a performance at the sold-out, 21,000-seat venue.
“Obviously we will take the necessary precautions, but based on what happened at Manchester, we are already trained to deal with these issues. This is what we do,” said Officer Yelitza Cedano, with the City of Miami Police Department’s public information office, on Tuesday.
Miami police provide security details to areas outside AmericanAirlines Arena, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and at major downtown events such as Ultra Music Festival. Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Roger Waters are among the performers bringing tours to AmericanAirlines Arena this summer.
A representative for Hard Rock Stadium, where U2 is set to perform on June 11 and Metallica on July 7, declined to comment on stadium security.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Manchester offers another unfortunate teaching moment for his department, which is part of a Department of Homeland Security fusion center and a regional antiterrorism task force.
“It’s a matter of evaluating and reading about every incident and seeing what we can learn from incidents of this magnitude and how we can get better,” Israel said. “At the end of the day — and it saddens me to say this — if you have a lone wolf homicide bomber … there is very little if anything you can do about that.”
“Protecting crowds as they leave venues might be a future option, but we have to analyze what happened in Manchester,” Israel said.
John Valentino, senior vice president at AEG Live, which books many of the acts that perform at Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, said the global promotion company would reserve comment until more Manchester information is confirmed.
“Along with everyone else, we are shocked and saddened by the terrible tragedy,” Valentino said. “Without knowing the entire set of facts and circumstances … it is not appropriate for me to speculate on the impact that event may have on venue security matters in South Florida and the U.S. We design a security plan for every show that best suits the fans, artists and venue staff.”
Among the acts coming to the amphitheater this summer are Linkin Park, Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Green Day and the Vans Warped Tour.
Security at the BB&T Center is handled by the Sunrise Police Department, which has officers assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Sunrise Officer Chris Piper on Tuesday said Manchester is now part of the ongoing security dialogue between the department and the venue.
“We have a lieutenant detached to work with [the task force] on a day-to-day basis. He is in contact constantly, making adjustments. Anything that is going on around the world, we are taking that into consideration,” Piper said.
Gary Bitner, a spokesman for Hard Rock Live, said security at the venue — from uniformed personnel working for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino complex and officers with the Seminole Police Department to the casino’s ubiquitous video surveillance — has been in a heightened state of alert since the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
“The honest answer is that there has always been additional security in place and it’s staying in place. It’s not going anywhere,” Bitner said.