Bowl Protections
Wednesday January 11th 2012 - Story and photos by Skip Robinson
Helicopter assets were critical in providing security for the 2012 Rose Bowl.
The Pasadena Police MD500E flies over the Rose Bowl during the football game.
Given the huge amount of attention attracted by the annual Rose Bowl college football game in Pasadena, Calif., security for all the fans is a priority. Just as much of a security challenge is the world-famous Rose Parade, which takes place in the morning before the game. To address these concerns, the Pasadena Police Department Air Operations Section provided aerial coverage for the 2012 events using its two Bell OH-58As, Bell 206B JetRanger and new MD500E helicopters. Also providing support for the day was a Eurocopter AS350 B3 AStar from United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which was airborne to enforce a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) around the Rose Bowl during both events.
On the day of the Rose Bowl, Jan. 2, Pasadena PD had special flights operating from early morning until the evening, in addition to normal patrol flights over Pasadena and the partner cities in its regional policing program. “We really keep an overall eye on things,” said Lt. Mike Ingram, commander of the Pasadena PD Air Operations Section. “Obviously our main mission is anti-terrorism and general law enforcement. For anti-terrorism, I can’t get into exactly what we are looking for, but generally out-of-the-ordinary situations that catch our attention. We would then relay our observations to ground units for additional investigation. Our air units also have video and camera downlink capabilities, allowing our ground commanders to maintain situational awareness and have an overall view of a situation. We also work closely with the CBP air unit to maintain a helicopter in the air at all times to enforce the temporary flight restriction over the events. We have hosted the CBP for a few years now and have a strong working relationship with this agency.” This year, the CBP AStar flew most of the day and did have to escort one TFR violator to a local airport, where the reasons for the violation were discussed.
Ingram continued, “In the law enforcement realm, our patrol aircraft are looking for people targeting cars for burglaries, or auto thefts. We also look for any other criminal activity, anything from assaults to large crowd gatherings in parking lots that might get out of control. … We are always available for immediate support for our ground units when they feel they need our assistance. After the game we watch over the departing cars and look for reckless and uncooperative driving and drunk or intoxicated drivers. Finally, we fly in support of our parking and traffic enforcement units, making sure there’s a smooth flow of cars to both events. We take our traffic managers up, where they can communicate with their ground officers to make sure there are no traffic bottlenecks or other traffic problems.” The unit also provides support to the events staff, doing VIP flights and photo flights as requested.
New this year was support from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Aero Bureau, which based its Sikorsky H-3 Sea King “Air Rescue 5” on standby alert. It also deployed its new, downlink-equipped AS350 B2 AStars, capable of providing airborne video images to a ground-based receiving station where commanding officers can view the images during a developing tactical scenario. Another airborne technology deployed by the Sheriff’s Department was a radiation- and chemical-sensing pod mounted on the side of an Aero Bureau AS350 B2. These sensors are quite sensitive, and the full capabilities of the equipment are not discussed openly. As Aero Bureau Capt. Louie Duran told Vertical, “We are proud of the latest equipment we’ve been able to procure for the citizens of Los Angeles. … It has been a process but they give the Sheriff’s Department and other local agencies a high level of airborne capability.”
Pasadena’s Lt. Ingram had some final thoughts for Vertical: “We’ve been doing the Rose Bowl and Parade for many years. We know were we need to be and where the problem areas are, and this makes us efficient with our operations. We appreciate the additional support we get from the other air units and this gives us the ability to concentrate on what we need to do.”
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