Heightened Security at Sun Life Stadium for Orange Bowl

Police, K-9s keeping Orange Bowl attendees safe

Before the 2013 BCS Discover Orange Bowl between Florida State and Northern Illinois kick-off at Sun Life Stadium Tuesday night, authorities were working on some extreme security measures to keep more than 76,000 thousand people safe.

“We’re just doing an explosion detection sweep and he’ll pick up any type of explosives that are in the area," said Miami-Dade Police Lt. Jeff Schmidinger, who was accompanied by his K-9 partner Bo. "We have bomb technicians in case he gives an alert and were just checking everything out and making sure everything is secure.”

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With a nose about 350 times more sensitive than a human’s, Bo along with 13 more explosion detection dogs will be doing security sweeps everywhere from delivery trucks, locker rooms, stadium seats and more.

“Fans can expect to see them at a couple of the gates. Normally we have them at all the gates but now we have them at all the gates but today we’ll have them at a select few of the gates and the dogs will be posted there until the end of the game," Schmidinger said.

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For many fans, this Orange Bowl matchup is a big deal but what’s going to take place off the football field is no game at all.

“Unfortunately, over the past few years there have been threats to stadiums nationwide," Schmidinger said. "To combat those threats we put those safeguards in just to make sure being that we are going to have a lot of national attention here as well as a lot of people here, so it’s for the safety of everyone.”

The security sweep is just one of the many layers of security the Miami-Dade Police department has put in place to provide a safe environment for all spectators to enjoy the game and a safe new year.

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