Security Heightened for Monday's Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium

There’s a serious layer to these events as officers and K-9's have been at Hard Rock Stadium since early in the morning making sure everyone stays safe.

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While it’s going to be an exciting night Monday as the Florida Gators and Virginia Cavaliers battle in the 86th Orange Bowl game, there’s a serious layer to these events as officers and K-9's have been at Hard Rock Stadium since early in the morning making sure everyone stays safe.

Officers from several agencies, including Miami-Dade Police, arrived to sweep the area for safety – both for this game and as a ‘dry run’ for the Super Bowl scheduled for February 2nd.

“The dogs are out here to make sure everybody stays safe and nobody brings anything in here that could hurt anybody so that everybody can come here and enjoy the game,” said Jeff Schmidinger from the department K-9 Security unit.

One dog, named Bear, has been sniffing for bombs at the Orange Bowl for five years and is one of more than 20 dogs that will be here — sweeping deliveries coming in, vehicles and around the stadium.

“This is just one of the many layers of security that we will have today,” Schmidinger said, adding that there will be special response teams, eyes and ears in the air, and more officers.

The preparation does not stop as, outside the 200 hours of schooling, Bear has to do weekly training for his job.

“This is just another day for us, but certainly something we take very seriously,” Schmidinger added.

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