Rolling_Stone_Australia_October_2017

Concert Security’s

New Frontier

From dogs that screen hundreds at once to invisible

anti-drone walls: How venues are trying to stay safe

BY STEVE KNOPPER

I

nthehoursafterabomb

killed 22 people outside an Ariana

Grande concert at England’s Man-

chesterArena,representativesfor26

oftheworld’sbiggestvenueshelda

conference call with security officials about

howtopreventanotherattack.“Tothis

point, security has been about crowd man-

agement, but now there has to be terror-

ism [prevention] built into the concert,”

says Bill Bratton, the former New York po-

lice commissioner who is the executive

chairman of Prevent Advisors, which con-

sultsdozensofarenas,includingMadison

Square Garden and the L.A. Forum. On

arecentafternooninL.A.,300concert-

industry veterans attended a conference

where Bratton and his team showed off and

discussedthenewesttechnologies–from

invisible walls that keep foreign objects out

to facial-recognition software – that con-

cert venues are using to battle terrorism.

Vapour-Sniffing Dogs

BonJoviarejustonebandthatrequests

“Vapor Wake” dogs at concerts. While nor-

malpolicedogsaretrainedtoscreencon-

certgoers one by one, Vapor Wake dogs can

screen hundreds of people at a time. They

are trained to recognise the microscopic

“thermal plumes” emitted by a person car-

ryinganexplosive.Thedogs,mostlyLabra-

dors, are bred in labs at Auburn University,

trained for 15 months and often socialised

in prisons. “You could track the guy into a

[specific]seatinastadiumfromthevapour

wake trailing in the air,” says Mike Down-

ing, Prevent’s executive VP of security.

Anti-Drone Technology

In May, a GoPro drone crashed into the

upperdeckofSanDiego’sPetcoParkdur-

ingaPadresgame.Itbelongedtoanov-

ice drone pilot, but the incident spooked

experts, who see a weaponised drone at-

tack as a real possibility. Some venues

havebeenusingapieceofequipmentde-

visedbyDanMagy,atechdeveloper,who

studied the signals between drones and

controllersanddevisedanalgorithmthat

buildsa“virtualwall”aroundavenuethat

keeps drones out. At the conference, Magy

showed off a suitcase-size box, explaining

how it scrambles drone signals. “You cre-

ateabarrier,”Magysays.“Weessentially

send the signal back at the drone that will

confuse it.”

Sophisticated Cameras

A new 360-degree camera can automati-

cally detect body language associated with

suspicious activity, such as looting and

“zone intrusion”, before it notifies staff.

This comes in handy at arenas, which are

equipped with anywhere from 300 to

2,000securitycameras–somanythatthey

can be tough to monitor. “The people in the

operations room have a hard time learning

what’s relevant,” says Thomas McIntyre of

Axis Communications, which manufac-

tures the technology.

Smartphone Body Cameras

AtaU2concertinJuneatLevi’sStadium

in Santa Clara, California, 40 officers wore

smartphones containing a live-video app

thatcanzoominonsuspects.“Iftherewas

an active shooter, [the operations room]

couldturnonallthelivestreamsatonce,”

says Alexander Popof, chief operating offi-

cer of a Silicon Valley firm that manufac-

turesthetechnology.Afterashow,police

can use that app’s “heat map” to determine

which parts of a venue need more security.

Face-Mapping

It’sstillafewyearsoff,butfacial-recog-

nition technology will eventually be com-

monplace at major public events. These

cameras can cross-reference a person’s

image with millions of photographs – from

FBIdatabasesandbackgroundchecks–to

instantly determine whether someone is a

security risk. Soon enough, similar technol-

ogywillbeabletorecogniseapersonsim-

plybythewayheorshewalks.

Social-Media Monitoring

TheGrammysandtheSuperBowlare

among other big events that use software

like Babel Street, which scours 25 social-

media sites in 200 languages for suspicious

online activity. Venue security sets a “geo-

wall” around the event, and it scans every-

thing from Facebook check-ins to tweets.

“There was chatter on Twitter prior to the

Manchester attack,” says Downing. “Had

there been a geo-fence established, it could

have provided information pre-attack.”

Advanced Metal Detectors

Security officials have told venues to ramp

up metal detectors post-Manchester, but

“long lines are a risk”, says Chris Robin-

ette, president of Prevent. This is why

venues like Dodger Stadium have started

using “magnetometers”, which can screen

fans quickly without having them re-

move everything from their pockets. Says

Robinette, “You can move through 80,000

people much more efficiently.”

26 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com October, 2017

R& R

GETTY

ARMED FORCES

A NYPD

Counterterrorism

offi cer patrols

Times Square in

New York.