February 01, 2014
Photo courtesy dhs.gov
Dozens of federal and local law enforcement agencies have heightened security in preparation for Sunday’s Super Bowl, limiting access to New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium and beefing up measures for mass transit in light of recent suicide bombings in Russia.
Despite no specific terror threats against the game, officials say suicide attacks on a trolleybus and a train station in Russia that killed more than 30 people within weeks of the Winter Olympics have raised worries among authorities, Reuters reported.
“Of particular concern to us is what was going on overseas in Volgograd in regard to the Sochi Olympics. As you know both of those bombings were targeting mass transit,” Col. Rick Fuentes, head of the New Jersey State Police, told reporters this week. “That is a concern with the mass transit; we’ve prepared ourselves for it.”
The Transportation Security Administration said Friday that all fans boarding trains to the stadium from Secaucus Junction Station, the start of NJ Transit’s 6.8-mile line to the stadium in East Rutherford, must pass through a security checkpoint manned by TSA agents.
Only people who show agents a valid Super Bowl ticket will be allowed to pass through the security checkpoint and board a train, said John Durkin, special agent in charge of the TSA Newark field office.
Fans will only be allowed to carry a small clutch bag or purse that’s no bigger than 6.5 by 4.5 inches and a clear plastic bag that’s about as big as a freezer storage bag, per the NFL’s bag policy. TSA will not have a place to store larger bags, and a person will not be allowed to clear security and get on the train with one.
The checkpoints started Friday and will be random until Sunday, when they turn mandatory for all people taking the train to MetLife Stadium. Friday agents were swabbing women’s’ bags to check for explosives.