The Final Four, which comes up in San Antonio this weekend, is one of the most watched events in the world, and that makes it a target for criminals, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Police Chief Bill McManus today briefed reporters on the plans he has made to harden the Alamodome to make sure the Final Four, which will have a TV audience above 25 million and is second only to the Super Bowl as the most watched sporting event of the year, will be as safe as possible.
He says visitors will see many officers, and there will also be officers the visitors do not see.
"We have our intelligence agency, we have our own internal intelligence that is working," he said. "If people are dreaming about doing something, we are going to know about it."
During the height of the Austin bombings, McManus called for more assets like metal detectors to help his officers and city officials keep the Alamodome safe
."You will notice a visible presence, but you will not notice a lot of things we have planned to maintain security," he said, adding that 'anything and everything that happens, we will get a sense of it.'
But McManus says the officers also understand that, through their uniforms and their prominent roles in the Final Four activity, from directing traffic to preventing ticket scalping, the officers will be ready to turn on the smiles, too.
He says the officers will be ready to do everything from providing directions to making recommendations on good taco restaurants.
"We have covered every single detail of security that you can think of, and even details that you could never think of."