Glendale Fire, Police get tips at New York Super Bowl

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Glendale police and firefighters are already hard at work getting ready for next year’s Super Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium.

A group of them returned from New York earlier this week, where they monitored how police and firefighters handled Super Bowl activities in both New York and New Jersey. They will try to take what they learned to help Glendale better prepare for next year’s game.

As a result of his experience, Glendale Police Cmdr. Matt Lively would like to see more security cameras around University of Phoenix Stadium.

“New York has a huge use of cameras and other things,” he said. “We’ve got some, but not that many.”

Lively said with the game happening in Glendale, the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Scottsdale and various other Super Bowl parties and events happening at the same time, police officers in the Valley will be busy. He said that various law enforcement agencies and fire departments are going to need to cooperate with each other.

“There’s going to be motor officers doing escorts,” he said. “There’s going to be bomb squads available to respond somewhere. There’s going to going be SWAT teams available. We will need to share those assets, and place them where they’re available (and needed) depending on what’s going on in a particular day.”

Lively said that the police and fire department in New York and New Jersey worked together to make this year’s game a success and law enforcement agencies here will need to do the same next year.

Both the police and fire departments said they are well-equipped and will be ready for next year’s big game.