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CNN Live Sunday

Is the Super Bowl Site As Safe As It Can Be?

Aired February 03, 2002 - 17:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has pronounced the site of the Super Bowl to be as safe a venue as it can be. CNN's Tom Rinaldi looks at how tight security is affecting fans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM RINALDI, CNNSI CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looking around, it was easy to remember there was going to be a football game, but everywhere else you looked, the game was surrounded by a national special security event. National Guardsmen, Army trucks, barricades, and thousands of people arriving earlier than ever before for a game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About four, five hours earlier, just for standing in line, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Want to be able to have them go through my purse, check my binoculars. I did bring my headset, that they preferred I not, but that's how I listened to all the games for the last 24 years.

RINALDI: It is a scene reminiscent more of an airport terminal than the NFL's biggest game. Fans entered a fenced-off perimeter. Inside, they were searched and patted down, in ways ranging from the human touch to high-tech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a hassle, and I don't mind waiting in line for three hours, or four hours, or six hours. It's about security and a peace of mind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The security stuff bothers us, all of us.

RINALDI (on camera): How so?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's this lady right here, they're checking her purse, telling her she can't come in, and -- but you know, they're nice about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The screening process that's going to come into the game is going to weed out any possibilities of, you know, any types of weapons or anything like that coming into the stadium.

RINALDI (voice-over): Once inside the stadium, fans were surprised by how easy it was ultimately to get inside, if you had the time and the tickets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) listening to radios and everything with Secret Service being here, something like that, I feel safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel safe being here, because of...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are so many people here, and this would be a perfect target.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Think about it.

RINALDI (on camera): The first Super Bowl in history overseen by the Secret Service has used the security plan implementing 48 separate agencies, spanning state, federal and local levels.

If you think it will be some time until you see this sort of security plan in use at a sporting event, it will repeat in less than a week, at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

At Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans, I'm Tom Rinaldi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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