San Francisco’s mayor and other city leaders gathered Monday to talk about Super Bowl safety.
With just 13 days to go until the big game in the South Bay, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie encouraged people to get ready for a week of super celebrations. But one of the first public safety concerns he referenced Monday is what’s happening in Minnesota with federal agents shooting and killing ICU nurse Alex Pretti during a confrontation over the weekend.
“In San Francisco, especially those communities that are already enduring the painful impact of aggressive federal immigration enforcement, we are feeling fear and anger as we witness the horrific events unfolding in Minneapolis,” Lurie said.
The Super Bowl and surrounding events will be massive. While the game is set for Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, a week of run-up celebrations will largely center in San Francisco. Public safety coordinators call it a tier one event – the highest category for law enforcement.
In past tier one security events, like APEC a couple years ago and even the Super Bowl 10 years ago, there was a significant effort to show the coordination between local, state and federal officials. Monday’s briefing only included local officials.
Lurie said residents will see a lot of uniformed local police officers in the streets. San Francisco police Chief Derrick Lew said all vacation days are canceled the week of the Super Bowl, and Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said all of his deputies will be available.
But because the Super Bowl is so big, Lurie said San Francisco and the Bay Area region also needs to depend on some federal resources.
“When it comes to counter terrorism, when you’re a tier one event like Super Bowl 60 is, we have threats that could be international in scope, and so we need the resources to make sure that we keep everybody safe this week,” Lurie said.
Lurie, Lew and Miyamoto all reiterated that local law enforcement will not cooperate in any federal immigration operations.
On other public safety issues, the district attorney’s office is leading efforts to address human trafficking, which tends to spike during large events. The Department of Emergency Management will lead the effort to address the city’s ongoing homeless crisis by coordinating multiple city agencies to get people off the street, as they have been for the last year.
“During Super Bowl week, that coordination will continue around high-traffic areas and event corridors,” Department of Emergency Management Director Mary Ellen Carroll said.
All agencies at Monday’s public safety briefing asked people to be patient with the crush of traffic that comes with an event of this size.