Law enforcement groups hope to prevent repeat of Olympic bombing

Erin McClam

Friday, Jan. 21, 2000 | 8:40 a.m.

ATLANTA - Three years after a bomb exploded in a crowd of Olympic visitors, law enforcement agencies in Atlanta are trying to avoid a repeat as the city prepares to again be the center of the sports world.

The Centennial Olympic Park bomber was not captured. Three more blasts rocked the Atlanta area in early 1997. Fugitive Eric Robert Rudolph has been indicted for all four bombings.

Security officials say they are doing everything possible to make sure fans attending next weekend's Super Bowl will be safe.

"We understand this is the first major sporting event of the millennium," said Michael Humphrey, a Super Bowl special events manager. "It's our hope certainly not to see a repeat of earlier events. That was a tragedy."

Contemporary Services Corp., an NFL-contracted crowd management firm, will have up to 2,500 private security officers working in Atlanta on game day, vice president Pete Kranske said.

That's in addition to officers from the Atlanta police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia Dome and the NFL.

"We have just about everybody working together here," said Glenn Cooper, an NFL representative overseeing security at the game.

Neither the GBI, the Georgia Dome nor the NFL would release specific numbers or details of their security plans. But NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league will take "all appropriate steps" to assure fans safety.

Security at the Dome, which seats more than 70,000 people for football games, isn't the only concern. NFL-sponsored events throughout the week - including fan festivals and restaurant promotions - could draw as many as 40,000 fans without tickets to Atlanta, said Robert Dale Morgan, president of the Metro Atlanta Super Bowl XXXIV Host Committee.

"Security issues are top-of-mind," all around the city, Morgan said Thursday.

The police department of MARTA, Atlanta's mass transit system, has canceled officers' off days for Super Bowl weekend, said Assistant Police Chief Michael Parker.

He said MARTA officers will patrol on foot, on bicycles and undercover all weekend.

"It's the whole department," Parker said. "We'll have plenty of officers downtown. We'll be out there showing a strong police presence."

A southwest Georgia woman was killed and more than 100 others injured in a bombing at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996. Two bombs exploded at a suburban Atlanta abortion clinic in January 1997, and another rocked a gay and lesbian nightclub in Atlanta five weeks later.

Authorities have charged Rudolph with the bombings, and offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest. He was last reported seen in July 1998.

More than 50 federal agents still are based in Andrews, N.C., looking for Rudolph, Justice Department spokesman Patrick Crosby said Thursday.

At Blake's, a gay Atlanta nightclub, patrons seemed worried about terrorism on New Year's Eve, but are not concerned about Super Bowl weekend, manager Heather Brown said. One or two Atlanta police officers will provide security at the club during the game, Brown said.

The international spotlight on a Super Bowl requires a huge police presence in the host city, said Vanessa Cook, a police spokeswoman in Miami, site of last year's game.

"As a police department, we planned for all sorts of situations," Cook said. "We were very lucky here. The biggest situation we had here was ticket scalping."