Atlanta police, FBI and GBI to team up to keep visitors safe during next year's Super Bowl

ATLANTA — More than 40 safety agencies have been meeting since January, preparing for the Superbowl in downtown Atlanta in February.

Atlanta Police Department’s Assistant Chief Rodney Bryant said this will be the largest event since the Olympics.

He said APD officers will work 12 hour-shifts to keep visitors and residents safe.

"We want to make sure we're covering the event as well as deal with the citizens that live in Atlanta," Bryant said.

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The 40 agencies include the GBI, FBI, Homeland Security and other federal and state agencies.

Amy Patterson is vice president of operations and logistics. She said, in addition to safety, transportation is one of their major issues for the city.

"We're certainly going to push MARTA over the 10 days, we're going to recommend car pooling, we're going to recommend to our businesses other ways to work over those 10 days, possibly some telecommuting," Patterson said.

She said the agencies they hope to present to the NFL their safety plan at the end of September or October. Planning for the unexpected is the difficult task.

"We look at what has happened in other cities and talk about what that would look like in Atlanta, and what contingencies we would have to have to deal with a situation like that,' she said.

Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl on Feb. 3.

Cox Media Group