-Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for joining us.
My name is Megan Erb and I'm the communications manager
for Seattle Information and Technology.
I'm here today with several of my colleagues
to share with you the city's planned response
and operations for when FIFA arrives in our city.
In today's press event, you'll hear
from several departments
and at the end of our presentation
will open it up for some Q&A.
So if you could save your questions
for later, we'd really appreciate that.
We'll also have a short
tour of the EOC
for those of you who are interested in attending.
The City of Seattle is excited to welcome the world
to our beautiful city and region.
This is a global event with immense
local impact for our residents and our businesses.
We've been working together not only as a city,
but as a region to prepare for this event.
This is a coordinated effort
across every part of city government.
And what you are seeing here
today is how we prepare for something on a global scale.
And at this time, I'm going to hand things over
to Ken Neafcy with the Office of Emergency Management.
-Good morning, everyone.
My name is Ken Neafcy.
I'm the operations manager for the City of Seattle,
Office of Emergency Management.
For over two years,
the city has been preparing to host
what is one of the biggest
events around the world, which is the 2026
FIFA World Cup.
As part of that effort, the city will be managing
operations during the six plus weeks of the tournament
through a dedicated and robust structure
that will remain in place throughout the tournament.
Our focus during the tournament
will be on four key objectives.
One, ensure that all event- related
activities are effectively managed and coordinated
during the tournament.
Number two, we will conduct operations
in a way that maximizes
the safety of our guests, community
and the people working on the tournament.
We'll also maintain constant communications
with personnel in the field as well as our other
stakeholders around the state and even across the country.
And finally, most importantly, we will be prepared
from this facility to respond quickly to any emergency
or contingency that may arise during the tournament itself
because of the complexity of this event.
The city has assembled a leadership team
that will work together
to manage operations during the
six weeks of the tournament.
The four agencies that make up that leadership
team will be from the Seattle Police Department,
Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Department of Transportation
and the Office of Emergency Management on Matchdays.
The city will bring together more than 40 agencies
from the city, county, state and even our federal partners,
as well as from FIFA local organizing committee,
to work together to ensure that the games are safe
and that the events during the tournament run smoothly
on non-match days.
Those same agencies will continue to coordinate,
share information, and remain ready to convene
at a moment's notice should any eventuality arise.
This facility will serve as a hub for those operations
and for management of the games,
for the city during the tournament.
We will monitor traffic as well as calls for service
across city departments as well as outside our area,
and coordinate with our partners to ensure
that we have
a total understanding
of what is happening not only in the city
but around around our region as well,
and be able to respond quickly should any issues arise.
One of the tools that we will be using
to share information with our community
during the tournament is AlertSeattle.
This is a tool that the city uses to share
important updates and action steps with the community.
Messages are delivered by way of text, email
or even a phone call
helping reach people wherever they are.
AlertSeattle will be used as one of our key
communications tools during the tournament.
The service is completely free and we encourage all of
our community to opt in and sign up for this service.
You can do so by going to alert.seattle.gov.
and filling
out the information there to sign up for AlertSeattle.
Thank you.
-Thank you, Ken.
Next up, I'd like to bring Captain Dan
Nelson from the Seattle Police Department.
-Good morning, everybody.
My name is Dan Nelson.
I am a captain with the Seattle Police Department,
and I have been assigned to the FIFA planning team.
It's been work that my team and I have been
working on for, as Kenneth said, a little over two years.
It's something we take very seriously.
I just want to start with my key message being that
the city of Seattle, Seattle Police
Department is very excited to be able to host the FIFA
World Cup and
welcome all of our international visitors.
You know, I grew up down the road in Kent,
and I personally think that
Seattle is probably the prettiest place on the globe
during the summer.
And I'm excited that we have an opportunity
to showcase it to everybody.
As far as what people can prepare to experience
when they're here visiting any of the fan
celebration sites or Lumen Field itself,
which will be renamed
Seattle Stadium for the duration of the tournament, is
a robust presence of law enforcement,
not only the Seattle Police Department,
but all of our mutual aid partners.
And we've been working very collaboratively
with our partners and the King County Sheriff's Office,
the Washington State Patrol,
and even so far away, Spokane Valley and Kennewick.
So you'll see a variety of different
law enforcement patches in our footprint
throughout the tournament, all there.
with a specific role in the tournament.
So when we talk about FIFA in all
people normally just think about look
and feel like what's happening at Seattle Stadium.
But it's important to know that that is
only one of several locations in the city of Seattle.
We have
again, four fan celebration sites across the city.
We have a victory hall, which is right
across from T-Mobile Park.
There'll be activities down on the waterfront,
obviously, the Seattle Center, both inside the armory
and out at the amphitheater
and then finally at Pacific Place.
They all have different names and different
accommodations to meet whatever people are looking
for. Additionally,
we have a couple of different practices
facilities in the city of Seattle,
one at the University of Washington,
which the University of Washington
Police Department is taking primary on.
They've done just a tremendous job planning
for all of the teams arrivals and making sure that facility
is ready to go.
And then a second one
at Seattle University, which will be used
more towards the end of the tournament.
Regionally, we have team base camps.
While they haven't been officially selected,
it's very likely that a team will be hosted down in Renton
as well at the Longacres facility,
which is where the Sounders call home.
And then also most likely
over at Gonzaga University and Spokane
Hotels.
We have a number of hotels in the city
which will be activated at different points in time.
That's where the teams will be staying.
And obviously we’ll have law enforcement
presence and private security
there to ensure everything is safe.
And that's
where a lot of the escort activity will begin and from
for the teams.
Then on top of that, there are nine
fan activation zones across Washington.
And that's important to note, especially
when we talk about mutual aid,
because a lot of our partner agencies have their own
responsibilities in their own backyard.
And so while they are very excited to help,
they did have to make sure
that their operational needs were being met.
So some general strategies that we're taking into account
and planning for regarding, you know,
these large fan bases coming into the city is
ensuring, you know, safe line queuing.
And a lot of people, as that can get
you know, get very exciting for a lot of folks.
But it keeps me awake at night.
So we are going to alter the way
we historically have done line queuing at Lumen Field.
You know,
if you think about major events,
usually have a mass of humanity
and everyone flows to a central point, you know,
get your ticket scanned and get your person checked,
and then you flow into the venue or a stadium.
So it's going to look different for FIFA.
Let's be more measured.
We're actually following best practices established
across the pond in Europe.
There's going to be a layered perimeter.
And so, you know, we have this entire
last mile area, which is basically
just giving the area
from all of our transit hubs into the stadium.
So you'll see
enhanced security measures in those areas
to prevent against vehicle
tax and drunk drivers and different things like that.
Proactively, we're
communicating with the different fan groups
and we've been meeting and actually
meeting later today with the Team USA fan group.
We're going to be talking
about their fan march, the routes,
determining like how many people are they anticipating,
you know,
what is their timeline look like
and then what activities
are they planning for on match days?
Because again,
people are going to be in Seattle
for the duration of the tournament.
And so we have to anticipate
they're going to be doing
things on match days as well.
And we're really leading that effort
with our police outreach and engagement team.
It's a practice we started here
in the city of Seattle a couple of years ago
where we established contact with organizers of groups
and we figure out like,
what is it they're looking to get out of
whatever it is that they're doing.
The hope is that by making
contact early and establishing relationships
like during the tournament and on Matchdays,
we can have the best possible outcomes.
You're going to see, I guess, a lot of officers
in a lot of different areas
to include obviously maintaining nine on one
response at baseline level.
So again, we took a very proactive
and thoughtful approach
to how we were organizing our staffing to ensure
that there were no negative impacts on 911 operations.
We are anticipating some level
of demonstration activity in Seattle.
That's one of the things that, you know, identifies us
globally is the ability to organize ourselves and,
you know, activate in free speech events.
And so that's something we're anticipating for
going have, again,
a very facilitative approach to that to ensure
everyone who's demonstrating has a safe place to do that.
And while also making sure that there's no impacts
to people being able to come and go from the area.
Again, this is something
the city of Seattle, this all the time.
We have hundreds of events every year now,
nothing like quite like FIFA.
FIFA's kind of
the big deal, but
we know that our approaches have worked in the past.
I'm sure everyone's familiar when we host the Club
World Cup last year, that was kind of a
a trial run for us and we tried a lot
of our approaches and that went very, very well.
And so
this year is going to be that, but a little bit more scaled
up to meet the scope of what
we're being asked to take care of.
You know, I know the question is probably going
to come up later around
your interaction with the feds.
And I just want to underscore, initially,
you know, Seattle is a welcoming city.
And again,
to my first statement, like
this is an opportunity
for us to demonstrate our values
in our community on a global level.
And so that's something we're committed to doing.
And yeah, that's it.
And I'll take questions at the end.
Thank you very much.
-All right.
Thank you.
Up next is Seattle Fire Department,
and we have Battalion Chief Andy Collins.
-Morning, everyone.
My name is Andy Collins.
I'm a battalion chief for the Seattle
Fire Departments, and we share in the excitement
that has already been described
about bringing the FIFA World Cup to Seattle.
Seattle Fire has been a part of the planning efforts
for over two years.
And so we are lockstep with our colleagues,
our fellow departments, in all the preparation efforts.
So I want to talk about just kind of three focus areas
that the fire department is specifically preparing for.
We recognize that there will be a lot
an influx of people, visitors to not only the region,
but specifically to some of the spaces in
the pedestrian zones in close proximity to the stadium.
And so accordingly, the fire department
is preparing additional resources
to be in play, in position to respond if needed.
But the three efforts that we are specifically planning
for are our emergency medical services,
our fire suppression and our hazmat detection
and so, for EMS, or emergency medical services,
we we know that it's going to be a very densely
populated area in and around the stadium.
We know that, for safety,
traffic
management plans will preclude vehicles.
So we know that there will be pedestrian only areas.
And so to to anticipate that
and make sure that our response times
are still as quick as possible.
We'll be using
bike EMS, having folks
being very mobile on Gators
and so forth, and to quickly navigate those spaces where
they are going to be densely populated.
We've seen these
this occur
most recently
when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl
and we had folks here celebrating.
But these are these are tested plans.
And we're putting them in place,
we also know that we will have or I want you to know
that we'll have
dedicated staffing not only in the stadium,
but for all the fan celebration sites
that Captain Nelson just referred to.
So we will have, in that last-mile area,
we'll have a presence fire department for EMS
at the fan celebration sites
and then of course, in the stadium itself.
This is all in addition to our standard on duty operations
that will respond to 911 calls throughout the city.
And then I think it's important for you to know that
the Seattle Fire Department has fielded
some awareness level training for human
trafficking on our members are in a unique
spot to be circulating throughout the city.
And we want them to have a
just a keen awareness and an eye out for
for any indications that we need to make sure our
are shared to to make Seattle
and honestly this nation a safer place
in the realm of fire suppression.
Fire prevention division has been a part
of the planning effort from the beginning,
working to make sure that all the permitting processes
is appropriate for life safety needs
as well as we will be having additional apparatus
and staffing positioned in the downtown core
to respond as needed.
We know that there's gonna be a large influx of people
and so there will be things that we plan for
and I'm sure there'll be some things that we don't,
but we want to be ready for those as well.
And anyone that knows soccer,
especially the international culture,
knows that pyrotechnics and smoke is used often
for celebratory purposes.
And so we are prepared for that.
We have trained for that to ensure that
wherever, if we see that occur,
is handled immediately and safely to keep all our
all the fans safe and make sure it's an enjoyable space.
So and then lastly, the hazmat detection.
This is a capability
that hopefully none of you
really pay much attention to because oftentimes
it happens in the background.
But but our hazmat teams,
along with our regional partners,
are actively and passively detecting for CBRN activity.
These are
these are threats, unfortunately,
in a large
high profile event that we just need
to be paying attention to.
And so we have
the right people with the right equipment
out there
monitoring for that
to ensure that we have early indications
and are in a position to respond if necessary.
This is something that happens
regularly at Seahawks games, any NFL games, any time
we bring large scale events, Taylor Swift concerts to town.
This is this is a very normal thing to do.
And then I guess I'll just end and let you know that,
you know, like I mentioned,
our plans are well thought out.
They're tested and they're proven.
We have had the good fortune, all of us, and planning
for events like, in 2023, when MLB
brought their All-Star Game and activities to Seattle.
And in 2025, the FIFA Club World Cup
was here and so we have had the opportunity to iteratively
test these plans, refine them, and we will be ready.
So look forward to having.
Thank you.
-All right.
Up next, you'll hear from the Seattle Department
of Transportation, and we have Deputy Director
Elizabeth Sheldon with us.
Good morning.
-I'm Elizabeth Sheldon, the deputy director
at the Seattle Department of Transportation.
And I'm excited today to be here this morning
to share our citywide mobility plan with you.
Our strategy is grounded in five key pillars
that we've had in place for quite a while now.
We first implemented them in advance of the viaduct closure
and have had the opportunity
to adjust and refine as we have had more
major projects and events throughout the city.
First off, we're going to monitor
and operate the transportation system in real time.
We're going to leverage
our transportation operations center
as well as our ability to make signal timing changes
on the fly
throughout the games to make sure we're keeping
people good goods and services running smoothly.
We're able to reduce drive alone trips
by encouraging transit, walking and biking.
We've made us several
investments and improvements in our transit system,
our bike system
and our pedestrian system
over the past several years that will
allow us to better leverage non
SUV modes of transportation.
We're able to
collaborate with our regional transportation
partners at King County Metro Sound Transit in Washington.
I'd be remiss if I didn't call out the recent
opening of the two Lane and the Judkins Park station
as well as TAP to pay
and the improvements that Metro has made
recently.
We're able to manage
and maintain our public right of way,
balancing the needs of all people
who are using our streets and sidewalks.
One example of
this is we are issuing a temporary construction pause
on the key arterials, transit arterials throughout the city
to be able to balance
the needs of users throughout the city.
As we experience more people coming to Seattle.
And finally, we're going to communicate
with the public
clearly and consistently through web
updates, social media, real time
traffic alerts and a stop blog and neighborhood outreach.
Why we're here today.
Shifting a little
bit to from our overarching strategies.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the last mile
connections and the Pioneers square pedestrian zone.
We realized that most people we have
we have the opportunity
to really leverage a downtown stadium and to support those
who are taking transit, biking and walking.
But with that comes an increased number
of pedestrians connecting from the sound
transit stations, particularly from downtown in the north.
So in order to accommodate the large number of people
moving through the neighborhood
to get to the stadium, we are looking at
some significant street closures
that will generally begin 4 hours before match starts.
And once the areas be been cleaned
and can safely be reopened.
Generally, 2 to 3 hours after the match,
no parking restrictions are going to take effect earlier
at 2 a.m.
each match day so we can clear vehicles from the streets
and there will be designated pick up and drop off locations
for rideshare vehicles outside of that closure area.
Bike and scooter share vehicles
will be automatically slowed down to eight miles per hour
and directed to parking designated spots
sort of around the perimeter of the closure area.
And this will be coordinated, as you see here
with across the departments, including emergency services,
economic development and transit.
The closure is generally going to be south of yes,
LA to Royal Rome and First
Avenue to the stadiums.
Given this closure, we're able to expand
some of the opportunities for businesses
and organizations in that area.
So we're going to give small businesses more opportunities
to use the streets and sidewalks for sidewalk
cafes, vending merchandise displays and outdoor seating.
We appreciate the businesses flexibility and understanding,
and we hope that
the logistical challenges will be worth it
for this opportunity to create a safe
and fun place for people to eat, shop and explore.
In Pioneer Square and Seattle's restaurants.
Finally, I want to
give a give a shout out
to encouraging everyone to visit Flip your Trip
to help
try out alternatives to driving alone
and try opportunities like transit,
walking, biking or carpooling.
We've used a strategy
many times in the past, like this Seattle Squeeze,
most recently partnering with Washington and revive I-5
and the recent Super Bowl victory parade.
We appreciate everyone
who chooses to get around without driving.
Every one of you is helping
to reduce congestion for yourselves
and all the people who don't have this option.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you, Elizabeth. All right.
Thank you all for sharing the work
your departments are doing to help coordinate this event.
As you can see, the city of Seattle
is focusing on safety
as the foundation for preparedness for FIFA.
We've been working for years to ensure
that our residents, businesses
and visitors have an amazing experience
when they are here
for the tournament. We ask that people
give themselves time and plan ahead.
With that, I'm going to open it up for questions
for any of the groups that you've seen here.
Do we have any questions?
Just want to make sure.
So yes, sir.
To Roy role and then first to the stadiums.
You come stand at the mike
and that will be no, no parking starting at 2 a.m.
on no parking on the city streets,
starting at about 2 a.m. on Matchdays.
And it will be matchdays only so the six days
again, starting about 4 hours, 4 hours before the kickoff,
and those roads will be closed.
So no vehicle there will be closed, no vehicle access.
We have a blog post
that I believe is out or will be out shortly
and it has a map of the locations for you to look at.
-Yeah,
sorry this is already
touched on,
but can you talk about the
expansion of cameras in SODO or the stadium
district and a little more on how those might be used?
-All right, I'll hand that over to the police department.
-Yes. Thank you.
So, yes, there was
an additional investment made in expanding
CCTV in the area around the stadium.
Again, this is part of our effort
that we've been working on this plan
for about two and a half years.
So that was part of that plan.
Now, you know, in support of Mayor Wilson's directive,
those will only be activated in the event that there's
a credible threat or there.
We are responding to an incident in those areas
which is our policy with our real time crime center.
So that's how they'll be leveraged.
But yes, there there is an additional
investment in CCTV in the space.
And we actually asked the mayor
this a few weeks ago, but he would be the one to light
the switch and deem something a credible threat.
Would that be the mayor's office?
Would that be the chief?
Is there a mechanism in place for that?
Yeah.
So through the process, as you know,
Kenneth talked about in his briefing
with the EOC and Unified Command,
and there's going to be a multidisciplinary
executive team
going to be able to make decisions like that.
Is it just as simple as flipping a switch?
I mean, can you turn the cameras
in one minute from on to off to back off?
Yeah, it's it's very quick.
Yeah.
And how do you know how many cameras are down there?
Not I know there's a bunch.
I'm not sure exactly on the number
-I have a question
actually questions regarding the
international situation that's going on.
We have a war with a country that is vowing
to get back at us.
And this seems like a very obvious target now from there.
-Yeah, no, there definitely is an elevated threat risk,
not only just in Seattle,
but across the entirety of the tournament.
Some are working very closely
with our partners at FIFA, and I know
our and specifically has requested their group
match games being moved outside the United States.
FIFA declined that request.
I know there's ongoing negotiations
still happening, but I can say as far as
the City of Seattle is concerned is we're we're ready for it.
And our goal is to deliver a safe
and secure tournament and make sure everyone
has a good time while they're here.
-What would happen if you had to have a mass evacuation?
-Sure.
Well, we've been working with our partners also inside
Lumen Field or Seattle Stadium
to make sure
that any of the emergency notifications are prerecorded
and to include the appropriate languages. Right.
So that's a
the benefit of knowing
which teams are coming is we can prerecord
emergency notifications.
Secondly, we have a pretty robust
social media strategy
so people are more tied into the apps.
There is a way, you know, Kenneth and his team
here at the EOC can push notifications.
And then lastly, in person, the established department has
acoustical devices in the area.
So if we need to make notifications
to crowd in mass, we can do it in a clear,
understandable manner.
And again, each team will have a they're called TSL.
Those are team security liaison officers.
So we'll be able to link them in with our team.
So if we need to rebroadcast matches in the appropriate
language, we'll have that availability as well.
-Which languages are you recording?
(unintelligible speaking)
-The languages we're recording at ahead of time
are the primary languages in the spoken in the
visiting nations.
-Have you had contact with any of those for I'm sure
like some of the foreign governments,
they want to know the security contact
(unintelligible speaking)
with some of the other nations to brief them.
-Yeah, thanks for the question.
So we've already met with Belgium.
They were out a couple weeks ago. A month ago.
We walked through there again, plan for the days and on on
game days, what their march
was going to look like, how many people.
We met with Australia this last Wednesday.
I'm again we're meeting with the
support group for Team USA this afternoon.
So we've been meeting up with them
as they become available as they're identified.
Again, the goal is to make contact
with them early,
establish relationship, hand out business cards
so we can do that good liaising on the front end
so we can get better game day results.
-That go where they ask you what was that?
What were those meetings like? Just describe that.
I know you wanted to make. -Sure.
-Were they impressed?
What did you tell them?
-I like to think they're impressed,
but I'm just getting so know.
So they were just curious. Right.
A lot of them haven't been to Seattle before,
and they just want to know, like, what was our approach?
You know, our
our stadium is unique in that it's
in the middle of our main hub
here in Seattle, whereas, you know,
some of the other stadiums
are in the middle of a multi acre area.
And so we're really in the mix of it,
which also informs you and Elizabeth
was talking about our traffic planning strategies.
And so yeah,
they just had general questions
and you know, about, you know, say consular notifications,
if they had one of their citizens
here contact
or they have a medical emergency,
like what does that notification
protocol look like?
So we've been working
very closely with, again, our federal partners.
You know, Office of Foreign Missions came up.
We did a tabletop with them
and what was it was a couple of months ago.
So we walked through all of our protocols with them.
So just general questions like that, like
you would anticipate before a large scale event.
-How much emphasis have you put on in the past or
how much have you relied on or really like to have cameras
for past large events?
-Yeah, so CCTV is a good thing.
So historically, especially, we again,
we do a lot of demonstrations here in the city.
So historically is we'll put officers in the area
just to monitor
crowd behavior and direction, travel
and your sizes of crowd, things like that.
So CCTV is a good way for us to do that
a little bit more efficiently.
And then also it gives decision makers
real time view on what it actually looks like
because, you know, you play the game telephone
where you're describing something over the radio.
I mean that might look very
different or you might interpret
it being very different
than what it actually looks like in the field.
So CCTV is a really great tool.
But again, we're going to be compliant
with the direction that being put forth by Mayor Wilson.
-Challenges. Do you anticipate not having
those cameras until something is deemed appropriate?
-Well, like I said, we've been doing it like this
for many, many years.
And so we will we will be okay again.
We just have to make sure
that our communications are on point and again,
we're getting frequent updates.
-What's your preference?
Would you like to have cameras or are you okay without them?
-I'm okay without them.
I mean, cameras are great. Again,
it's a great technology.
It's it's an efficiency
for Intel gathering.
But at the same time,
we want to make sure that we're
there's a lot of privacy concerns
around any type of surveillance
or any type of technology.
And so we want to make sure
what our response is supportive of that.
And again, just following the direction out laid by Mayor
Wilson. -What's the plan for
(unintelligible speaking)
-Yeah.
So temporary fire restrictions are usually put out
in advance of large events.
We will have TFRs on Matchdays here in the city
and the details of those are still being worked out
by the FAA, who controls all of the airspace.
As far as, you know, enforcement
of the temporary flight restrictions,
that'll be a multi jurisdictional effort.
So there was some legislation passed earlier this year
that authorized state,
local, tribal and territorial agencies
if they receive the appropriate certification
to deploy counter drone technology,
which historically had been a federal mission.
So we got four seats for the state of Washington.
One was SPD,
some from the King
County Sheriff's Office, some from the state patrol,
and then some from Spokane Valley.
I'm sorry, Spokane sheriff's office
are all going to the training down in Alabama
to be certified.
Additionally, with the legislation,
there was a grant that was approved.
All of the US host cities were prioritized for 2026.
So we got the first seats
really because we have a big thing running through town.
And so we are going to be
deploying that technology around the footprint.
And then something we've been doing even
before the modification to the federal legislation was
we have ground intercept teams.
So there is drone detection technology already in the area
and that's something that we've leveraged
the Seahawks games and different things like that.
So it allows us to figure out
like where the drone is and also where the pilot is.
And so then we orient and send our officers out to
make contact with the pilot,
let them know they're in violation of TFR,
request them, bring it down, and then,
you know, just document everything that mitigation
is important
because if we can't
identify the pilot, obviously there's been a lot of,
you know, emerging technology in this space.
So sometimes that's tricky.
It allows us to mitigate it.
So either you're
holding the airway for our plane,
we can return to the center,
we can send it to a third point
where we have special teams ready to render it safe.
And so
that is a pretty important part of our response.
And something we've been working very closely with
the sheriff's office have been leader in this space
for many, many years, and we just
are so appreciative of their of their leadership
in this work.
-Just to clarify something you said way
back in the beginning,
you said that you were going to be staffing in such ways
to prevent any disruption to normal 911.
What exactly are you going to be doing?
-So we worked with our our labor partners on
well in advance. Obviously, the
staffing for
something like a FIFA World Cup is can be tricky.
And so we were working with them
and identified a way to maximize
after the officer deployment without making any impacts
to our operational response stuff.
So we think 9-11 response
and also post incident investigative response.
Obviously, if we have people who are in custody,
we still have timelines we have to meet.
So working with everybody
involved to find that meaningful mix
so we can make sure everything
is accomplished at the same time.
Because again,
this is going to be happening for many, many weeks.
And so it's not just on game days.
And so while also factoring officer wellness in, right,
making sure people aren't working 18 hour shifts, right.
So they are able to deliver the best
possible customer service related to response they can.
-So how is it exactly that you're going to be staffing?
So what is it?
What is this way that you found out?
-Well, basically we identify
we do a lot of special events and so
some are bigger than others.
And so we identified a rotation
based on individual officers, course shift schedules
as far as how many, let's say I work a schedule,
it doesn't matter that
that has some days off
and so I'll be required to work to FIFA matches,
whereas I might have a different schedule
and I can't work some of our other major
special events like Pride or something else like that.
So I might work more FIFA World Cup matches,
but we did in a way that was fair and equitable
across all the different
lines of businesses that the Seattle
Police Department has to make sure, again, we're trying to
maximize officer employment while maintaining
officer wellness.
At the same time,
it's I know it's a bit of a it's it's very, very tricky.
It's very complicated.
-Do you anticipate over time
having to pay a lot of overtime?
-We do.
And fortunately,
we had there's a FIFA World Cup grant program
which the city participated in an operational overtime
was one of the projects we put in for.
So we worked very diligently
to find a meaningful mix again of
using
on duty resources to the best of our ability.
And but understand there will also be some overtime needs.
But we are we are budgeted for it.
And again, it's
all going to be reimbursed through the the federal grant.
Any other questions?
-I don't know who,
given the situation
in the U.S.,
how many people do you think?
Because the first thing you want to do is
who handles crowd control?
Yeah.
How many things in border?
-Yeah, we're working with our FIFA partners,
not only on how many tickets have been bought,
but also where they're being purchased from,
which will be really important again,
to talk about working with our concert partners
and identifying language access and different
things like that,
making sure that we have enough
of those resources in the footprint on game day.
But again,
tickets are still being released
and so they're are still being bought
from all over the globe.
And so that's something we're analyzing to make sure
we have the right resources in the space
-Good morning, April Putney, chief strategy officer
for the Seattle FIFA World Cup Local Organizing Committee.
The ticket sales are wholly controlled by FIFA,
as Captain Nelson just mentioned,
but we are aware that we have overwhelming demand
for the six matches in Seattle.
The tickets have continued to be released in phases, but
as we get more information, we're very excited to be able
to share that with you.
But right now we do know that,
you know,
I think folks from more than 180 countries
and territories have have already purchased
tickets in Seattle.
So we are continuing to see a great demand.
-Can you spell your name?
April.
April. A-P-R-I-L P-U-T-N-E-Y.
-Any other question.
Okay, great.
For those of you who are interested in
joining the tour, go ahead and stick around
and then we'll get started in a little while.
And then for the rest of you, thank you so much for coming.
If you have any other questions,
just feel free to either reach out to myself or Patrick
and we can get you the resources you might need.
Thank you all.
-During the FIFA World Cup,
this is the facility we will be using to help us
manage and coordinate activities
over the six plus weeks that will have tournament,
the tournament taking place here in Seattle.
This is the Seattle Emergency Operations Center.
It was originally funded by a levy
back in the mid 2000s, and it has served
as the city's central point for coordinating activities
during special events as well as disasters
or other emergencies since 2008.
While we are here in this facility
during the tournament,
we will
obviously be keeping an eye on a number of different things
to make sure that events run smoothly
and that we are able to respond
to any type of situation
that develops during the tournament itself.
A couple of the key hazards that we will be monitoring
during the tournament will be the potential for excessive
heat as as potential for smoke from wildfires.
So we have a number of tools available to us
from the National Weather Service as well as the
other regional partners such as the Puget Sound
Clean Air Agency to help us monitor air quality,
as well as get forecasts on the potential
for smoke
impacting tournament operations
during the six weeks of the tournament itself.
So here around the room, we have a number of different
dashboards as well
as maps to help us monitor those conditions.
On this side, we have a map from the
National Weather Service
and Noah that shows us
what the current air quality is like around
not only Seattle, but the region as well.
We also work very closely with the National Weather
Service to monitor heat conditions.
So they have a heat index
which helps us guide our operations
during the tournament itself.
So if we see that heat index start to climb,
we can then begin to take some additional actions
not only inside the stadium
but around the tournament itself too,
to mitigate the potential for heat impacting
not only our community, but guests that are here as well.
We also have the ability to monitor traffic cameras
that are that are operated
by the Seattle Department of Transportation.
We put those cameras up around the facility itself
so that, again, the 40 plus agencies
that will be here during match days
have the ability to monitor those things in real time
and then work together to collaborate,
solve issues or problems
that come up during the tournament.
So that, again, we're kind of functioning
as one team with one mission
during the entire tournament itself.
The city uses a form of a national standard,
which is called the Incident Command System, which helps us
kind of coordinate as well as kind of organize ourselves
effectively to be able to manage
not only disasters but special events as well.
So we have four tables that are kind of dedicated
to what we call our operations section.
And these are the folks
that really are the ones
who are working together to solve problems
not only during the tournament,
but any time we activate the EOC.
So we have two tables that are dedicated to public safety.
Police and fire will be situated here.
And during the tournament itself,
we will also have representatives from the King
County Sheriff's Office, Washington
State Patrol,
as well as some of our federal security partners.
That will be at these two tables as well.
And then we have two tables towards the back here
that we will be putting most of our folks
from transportation
as well as some of our other key infrastructure partners.
So obviously,
we want to make sure that there's no interruption
in electrical service as well as water
and wastewater utilities.
So we will have representatives
from Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light
who will be situated at that table,
kind of monitoring, monitoring their systems
to make sure there are no disruptions.
And if there are that, we work
very quickly to resolve what those issues are.
And then finally, in the middle table over here
is where we will have representatives
from our hospitals
as well as from Seattle Parks and Recreation,
as well as some of our other human services partners
to make sure that, you know, any issues that come up
that particularly
are impacting our community, we can address
those as well in conjunction with our activities
that are taking place
in coordinating during the tournament itself.
And then finally, if we need any resources,
so let's say
we have a
particularly large emergency that happens here in Seattle
and we need additional assistance
from outside agencies or even perhaps
leveraging existing contracts
that the city has with our business community.
Our logistics section will take care
of all our needs to make sure that
those who are out in the field have the resources
they need in order to be able to assist our community
and those visitors who are here
for the tournament itself.
And then finally,
at this table, here is what is our plan section.
Our planning section will be mostly keeping an eye
and monitoring events, not only here in the city,
but across the country as well.
They will be responsible for ensuring
that as we get information
from our various partners, including FIFA, the state,
the county,
and even other host cities around the country
or in Mexico or Canada,
they are collecting
all of that information and then combining it in a way
so that then we can be collectively make decisions
or support decisions that we make here in this room
at the unified command post during the tournament itself.
We also will have a very robust joint
information center capability.
So anytime we do have folks here in this room,
we also have a number of public information officials
from the various city departments
who will be staffing this operation to ensure
that we are not only communicating
effectively with our visitors and the community,
but also the media as well.
We consider the media a very important component
and making sure that the community is kept informed
not just during FIFA, but any time we activate the EOC.
So we make sure that we have
effective ways that we can communicate
both directly with the community
and then also with our media partners as well.
One of the most resilient forms of communications
that any government entity has is amateur radio.
So even if we lose cell phones,
if we lose regular phones,
even if our radio system goes down here in the city,
the amateur radio folks
will be the probably the one component of communications
that will function during any type of major event
or an emergency, including an earthquake.
So they serve as a backup means of communications for us
that allow us to not only communicate
with the state of Washington as well as our partners
over at King County Emergency Management,
but also with other key departments
and operations centers that will be operating
during the tournament here at FIFA as well.