Are There Snipers at Sporting Events?
Sports fans and those attending major events may have observed the heavy police presence at major stadiums. Snipers may be utilized to prevent large crowds from becoming unruly or shoot down any threats taken hostage by crowd members, while they have even been known to work at events such as Super Bowl 50 and concerts.
Photos posted online prior to the Super Bowl showed an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police sniper aiming a high-powered rifle from an elevated position inside Lucas Oil Stadium, something which may have caught some by surprise; this practice is actually quite common at large scale events; even Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones planned for this feature when creating his new stadium design.
A sniper is an elite marksman. To develop their craft, they train for months in an ideal environment with limited food and sleep to develop their craft. Their training also involves tactical training using multiple firearms such as sidearms, shotguns and pistols in urban settings while covertly entering hostile areas without drawing too much attention to themselves. Once in position they must stalk their prey while performing necessary math calculations before firing their weapons.
Snipers must possess many skills, but also be capable of operating under stressful conditions, such as time limitations, communication restrictions with team members and inclement weather. Snipers must be able to adapt their aim in real-time in response to changing environmental conditions as well as staying aware of an imminent attack that could occur at any moment.
Many snipers will regularly train with live firing into purpose-built rifle traps within open and closed sporting venues as part of their training, to prepare themselves to provide proactive overwatch protection at public venues that could become targets for terrorist attacks. Snipers trained in such an environment will have the chance to live fire from various positions such as club level, catwalks, vertically down pedestrian ramps or out into parking lots using KF Armory’s multi-faceted stadium bullet traps – an experience they are sure to remember in training!
Police snipers need to train under realistic scenarios, making classroom-based practice impossible. One effective solution for doing so is enrolling in TacFlow Academy’s Police Sniper Response to a Public Venue (PSRPV) course, available over multiple days.
Law enforcement officers who undergo this type of training can be better equipped to plan responses for any event and prepare themselves for unexpected circumstances. This is especially important given today’s heightened security environment where terrorist attacks have increasingly targeted public spaces such as sporting events and concerts; due to this trend, more people understand the importance of increased security at major events while appreciating more fully what risks may be involved.