Security is Big For Tech Home Games
By Nicole DeSonia

It's all done to ensure your safety. 

It may not seem like it, after you've consumed eight beers and want to rush the field at the end of the game, but the seating enforcement, the police officers in Lane Stadium and on the field, and the people monitoring traffic are all for your safety.

The Virginia Tech Police Department works closely with the Blacksburg Police Department on major events.  Nothing is more major than 68,000 fans cramming into Lane Stadium for a football game.

Basketball season is just around the corner, and the Virginia Tech Police Department will provide security for those events as well.  But basketball isn't the same as football. Lane Stadium holds six times the people of a basketball event.

“Football is big business,” said Blacksburg Chief of Police Bill Brown.  “Going into the ACC made it even bigger business.”

Big security business, too. Which can mean safe, but unhappy, fans.

The newest complaint of the fans, and especially the students, has to deal with the enforcement of seating.

Students have complained because people were sitting in their seats, so authorities moved in to protect seating. So now people are complaining because seating is being enforced.

“You can't make everybody happy,” said Virginia Tech Chief of Police Debra Duncan.

During the Hokie's match-up with Ohio University, the first home game of the 2005-2006 season, more than 2,000 fans tried to join the 5,000 capacity fans in the North End Zone of Lane Stadium.  The increase of fans didn't just cause a problem with seating and traffic flow, it became a safety hazard.  The bleachers could not hold all the people.

A new system was put into place the next week for the Georgia Tech match-up.  Helping to enforce the new system were 50 newly hired officers, specifically for seating enforcement.

The new system required every person's ticket to be checked.  This would force people to sit in their correct seats and have their tickets with them at all times.

“It's not unreasonable to expect you to have your ticket with you,” Duncan said.

The new system ended up causing a new problem ¬- traffic flow.

Students realized they couldn't sit where they wanted, so they just stood there trying to figure out a way to outsmart the system.  This caused a major gridlock just inside the gates.

Duncan said she would rather have the gridlock outside the stadium than inside.

So security was tweaked. Half of the entrance gates are now closed.  This helps the students funnel into the stadium. It's a slower, but surer, process for security.

“The positive has really outweighed the negative,” Duncan said.

While seating has become the main focus this year, other issues are monitored for each game. With the recent death of a University of Minnesota-Morris student who suffered a head trauma from a falling goal post, students' safety when rushing the field has been pushed into the spotlight.

The issue isn't that students rush the field, authorities decided.  Mathematically, the students can't be stopped. There are 68,000 fans and about 200 police officers.  The issue is their safety while getting out there and their safety while celebrating, authorities concluded. 

So game security officials decided to deploy the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets to play a major role.  When the seconds on the game clock hit zero and the game is over, the collapsible goal posts come down in a matter of seconds while the Corps of Cadets forms a barrier around them.

Ever since authorities adopted this strategy, no one has attempted to break through the barrier.

“Students have so much respect for the Corps,” explained Blacksburg's Brown.

Just in case that respect wavers, standing with the Corps around the goal posts are police dogs.

The main purpose of the dogs is intimidation, authorities explained.

Intimidation seems to be a common theme when it comes to enforcing safety.

For example, intimidation was used in the so-called “riot” that took place on Main Street after the Louisiana State University football game in 2002.

The riot turned out to be more like an unauthorized pep rally, Blacksburg's Brown recalled.  Thousands of fans filled the downtown sidewalks and then began to spill into the street.  The street was closed and the fans made it a block party.

Brown said he has no problem with people celebrating.  When those people begin to push and shove, that is when the officers will move in, he explained.  They are trying to prevent people from getting hurt and from destroying property.  Officers were placed in the streets for intimidation, not necessarily to break up the celebration, Brown said.

The Blacksburg police chief also expressed his respect for how the students behaved during that incident.  There were a few students who acted out, but you can't group everyone together, he said.

The same is true at every home football game.  Over 68,000 people attend every game, but only about 25 get arrested at each game.  The police officers at the university aren't enforcement oriented.  They are not told to arrest people. They are told to handle the problem.  Security officals say they really don't care how many tickets are handed out or how many arrests are made. 

In fact, authorities said that nine times out of 10, they won't arrest a person.  Brown said that if you misbehave, officers will intervene and ask a friend of yours to escort you home. The only times people are arrested is when they are drunk and companionless. Or if intoxication is so severe it requires hospitalization. Or if the offender becomes disruptive, or if a person is under 21 and has broken the law by consuming alcohol.

If you are under 21 an arrest is automatic, authorities said.

Remember, it's all for your own protection.