CLEVELAND — During the All-Star Game festivities, 100,000 people are expected to visit Cleveland. People from across the country and around the globe have converged on Northeast Ohio.
But, plans to protect them started well before they arrived in town.
There are local, state and federal law enforcement officers protecting and serving during the five-day event. Officers from neighboring cities and from other areas of the country are here to help.
Cleveland has hosted several large-scale events. The Republican National Convention and the NBA Championship festivities have laid the ground work for a security plan that has been tested.
“When you have a large-scale event like this, it’s not just assets arrive, you have the event and then they leave. There is a large sort of underpinning of things that go on that the public typically doesn’t see that allows for a safe and enjoyable event,” said Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland FBI Eric Smith.
There are police on bikes, on foot and on nearly every corner surrounding Play Ball Park. But, there are dozens of law enforcement working the event who will never be known to the public. For the All-Star Game events, roughly 100 FBI Agents from Cleveland and Washington, D.C have been deployed to help protect the events.
“SWAT Teams that are deployed within the city, at various locations throughout as a quick reaction force, as anti-sniper force. Then you have our bomb technicians, our bomb techs are out there, “said Smith.
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