The NFL Sees What You Did

Security cameras installed before the 82,500-capacity venue hosted this year’s Super Bowl feature a megapixel system that provides comprehensive, undisrupted video coverage throughout every part of the venue, save for inside those boxes.

MetLife Stadium’s nearly $1 million camera system has won accolades from trade organizations and the NFL, which wants to implement its security program throughout the league. And the system serves a validation as well as safety function.

With the new system, “we can validate people’s accounts of any dispute, see what actually happened,” says Daniel DeLorenzi, director of security and safety services at MetLife Stadium, which opened in 2010. “We can simply call our command center, see on video exactly who was involved and what occurred. “The video also has evidentiary value; it’s been used to see if anyone should be arrested and who.” It’s also utilized when medical issues crop up somewhere in the building.

“You get unique situations with 80,000 people in your stadium,” DeLorenzi adds. “The diversity makes this system invaluable.”

In addition to seating areas, cameras monitor concourses, escalators, the outside of the building and parking lots. The system has the ability to provide views of about a quarter-mile away, showing surrounding roadways and even the Giants’ practice facility. It took several months of investigating products and suppliers before the stadium settled on the camera design by Arecont Vision and management of the system by Genetec Security Center, according to MetLife Stadium President and CEO Brad Mayne.

And it’s not all about the cameras. When the stadium opened, DeLorenzi implemented a program emphasizing fan conduct. If someone is ejected from MetLife Stadium, that person is banned for all events until completing a re-admittance program.

That program requires the barred person to fill out a form that basically is an ejection report, explain to DeLorenzi what his or her actions were, and take an online conduct course vowing to act responsibly. Once that person has a certificate of completion, re-admittance is granted. And it’s not something unruly fans are choosing to blow off, either. “Our class registrations are up,” said Ray DiNunzio, the NFL’s director of strategic security programs.

“If fans violate one of the principle tenets, they are required to be ejected from the stadium and prohibited from returning to the stadium until completing the course. And new in 2014, they are barred from any NFL stadium.” DeLorenzi has no doubt about the effectiveness of the course and of the camera system. “The message is simply that what you do and how you behave is subject to scrutiny,” he says. “And we have the means there to see what you did.”