Law agencies won't heed NFL patdown plan

Sheriff's, police and FHP officials say fans' rights would be violated if they all had to be searched during higher terror alerts, as suggested by officials.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published July 30, 2004

TAMPA - It will be another three weeks before the Tampa Sports Authority decides whether to heed a National Football League recommendation that all fans at Bucs games be patted down if the nation goes on a heightened terror alert this fall.

But officials of the three law enforcement agencies who police Raymond James Stadium and its 65,000 fans on game days already have decided.

"We're not doing it," Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder said Thursday. Reder said the Sheriff's Office, Tampa Police Department and Florida Highway Patrol are concerned that a general patdown of fans would violate citizens' rights.

The Sheriff's Office bases its policy on patdowns on the 1968 case of Terry vs. Ohio, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an officer is justified in searching a suspect who is believed to be armed.

"So if you're walking down the street and you are believed to be a danger, we can pat you down," Reder said. "What we don't want to do is abuse that privilege the courts gave us. The general public expects us to do a patdown in a dangerous situation, not just in general for a sporting event."

Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin and highway patrol spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins said their agencies would take the same stance on patdowns of Bucs fans.

"We would do a patdown if there was a reasonable suspicion of a person being armed," Durkin said. "As you would when you're dealing with someone on the street."

The Bucs pay sheriff's deputies, Tampa police, FHP troopers and employees of the private firm Sentury Security to police games.

NFL officials this week recommended that if the Department of Homeland Security raises the terror threat to orange - the second highest level - all football fans should be patted down as they enter stadiums. (Right now, the nation is at yellow alert, or "elevated.")

The NFL did not offer to pay for additional security to conduct the patdowns, and the Bucs have refused in the past two years to pay for extra security.

Mickey Farrell, director of operations for the Tampa Sports Authority, said the authority will vote on whether to heed the NFL's recommendation at a meeting Aug. 23.

"We have a smorgasbord of things we can do if we go to orange, depending on the actual nature of the threat," he said, citing metal detector wands or patdowns that involve only the torso.

"The point is, we're gathering information still. On the cost, on how we could actually do it, on the different types of patdowns."

Two years ago, the authority voted against a post-9/11 proposal for full-body patdowns at all games. But the authority agreed to allow isolated patdowns if police came to stadium officials with a specific threat and requested a patdown, Farrell said.

If the authority approves patdowns next month and the three law enforcement agencies refuse to do them, Sentury could handle them, Farrell said.

But he wondered aloud what would happen if the terror warning came on a Saturday night before a Sunday game "and we can't get enough Sentury people here." It would be up to the law enforcement agencies to decide if they would help do the patdowns in that scenario, Farrell said.

Said Reder: "If they want patdowns, they'll have to get private security."

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 29, 2004, 23:57:19]