Metro treats bout security as routine

Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999 | 10:17 a.m.

Given the history of violent incidents following boxing matches of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, it would have been easy for Metro Police to beef up security for Saturday night's fight at the MGM Grand Garden.

For appearance's sake, Metro could have justifiably padded its forces by an extra two dozen or more off-duty officers -- at $43 per hour per person -- especially since the promoter, not the taxpayer, would have footed that bill.

"We don't do things for appearance's sake," Metro Lt. Christopher Van Cleef, director of the department's Special Events office, said. He will serve as incident commander at the Tyson-Frans Botha scheduled 10-round event.

The bottom line is that the security for the Tyson-Botha fight, including hotel guards, Metro Police officers, undercover detectives and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers, will number slightly less than 500 -- typical for such an event.

"Our first concern is public safety," Van Cleef said. "There has to be adequate protection. We certainly are concerned about liability, so we cannot understaff. But we are not going to overstaff, either."

Of the 500, 178 will be off-duty Metro officers and supervisors who will handle everything from controlling traffic to escorting the boxers to the ring. That pales in comparison to the 500 Metro officers who worked the Las Vegas Strip on New Year's Eve and the 150 who watched Fremont Street that night.

The number of officers who will work Saturday's fight, however, will be 58 more than the Metro crew that worked the largest sporting event in Nevada history: last year's Winston Cup championship, which drew 130,000 people to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"Each event is staffed differently, taking a number of factors into consideration," Van Cleef said. "For example, security for every rock concert is different depending on what band is playing and what type of crowd they attract. As for the Winston Cup, we didn't need as many officers because the bulk of our work was traffic control."

The Nevada Highway Patrol will be on alert for extra activity along the Las Vegas Strip on fight night, but patrol spokesman Scott Flabi said, other than that, "It will be pretty much business as usual."

"We usually have eight troopers on patrol in the area. On Saturday we'll add two more," Flabi said.

"There is something going on every Friday or Saturday night in Las Vegas, and traffic on the Strip is pretty much stop-and-go. That is how it will be the night of the fight."

MGM officials declined to give details about their security forces. But Van Cleef said that if the past is any indication, the hotel will probably employ about 300 people for all forms of security, including uniformed guards, T-shirt security (young bouncer-types who wear matching, distinctive T-shirts), parking attendants and ushers.

But will it be enough?

Incidents of gunfire and violence have become as much a memory of Tyson's MGM fights as the bouts themselves.

Following the June 1997 heavyweight title fight at the Grand Garden, where Tyson was disqualified for biting champion Evander Holyfield's ear, thousands of people inside the MGM panicked after hearing what sounded like gunshots.

There were two incidents of stampeding inside the 5,000-room resort, and police were forced to seal off a two-block strip of Tropicana Avenue to disperse the crowd. Amazingly, no one was injured.

In September 1996, following the Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM, rapper Tupac Shakur, who had attended the event, was shot while riding in a car with his record producer, Marion "Suge" Knight. He died a few days later at a local hospital.

Van Cleef, who was assigned to a different Metro department at the time of those events, has studied what happened to determine whether any police procedures need to be modified for events such as Saturday's fight.

"It was never determined that gunshots actually were fired (after the Tyson-Holyfield fight), though I am not saying that they weren't," Van Cleef said. "The thing is, whatever the sound, people panicked."

He said the sound could have come from a bike rack that, according to surveillance videotape, overturned about the time that people said they heard shots fired.

"Also, the crowd was more volatile because of what had happened with the disqualification as a result of the biting incident," he said.

"People pay a lot of money and expect to see a good fight. If their perception is that they do not get their money's worth, things can get volatile. Our job when that happens is to diffuse it as quickly as possible."

Other Metro personnel who will be assigned to Saturday's event include bike patrol officers and undercover detectives. They will keep an eye on gang-related activity, narcotics sales, prostitution, pickpockets, ticket scalpers and the sale of unlicensed memorabilia.

A Metro bomb-sniffing dog also will be on scene. Metal detectors will be set up at entrance to the Grand Garden to prevent guns and knives from getting into the arena.

Van Cleef said none of these precautions are meant to scare people from attending the fight. "We would never want to discourage anyone from coming to see a major event. I wouldn't compare boxing to ballet, but boxing crowds, for the most part, are great."