With over 15,000 frenzied fans packed into one giant auditorium, it comes down to chief of police Tom C. Younce and his team of law enforcement officials to make sure everyone makes it in and out of football games safely.
Younce, a ten year veteran of N.C. State events, is stationed in a control box that looks over the entire stadium and watches for disturbances or potentially dangerous situations.
“We have our unified command or incident command center,” Younce said. “We have fire protection and EMS. We have Wake Country Sheriffs department, events staff, myself and a camera operator.”
Younce said he prefers blowouts to close games because after a close win, fans are more likely to try and get onto the field. While the tradition of pulling down goalposts is a storied one, it is also very dangerous. Several students and fans have died in the scramble to get onto the field at various schools over the years.
Raleigh police employs around 80-110 police officers on game nights. If the football game is on a Saturday, Younce and his staff start preparing on Saturday. For South Carolina, they started on Tuesday.
The earlier the game, the fewer problems they have with rambunctious fans.
“We also have a processing center near the gates,” Younce said. “If we find someone who has consumed too much or possesses something illegally, they go there to be processed and we’ll eject them from the ball game. If it’s a criminal offense, we also charge them.”
Students who are ejected often won’t be allowed to return to another game that season.
For larger games against traditional rivals – which Younce said, naturally, tend to bring out the more boisterous fans – they have a magistrate on hand and a transport vehicle at the ready to transport offenders to jail.
This tends to happen to up to four people per game. Most of them, Younce said, are State’s own fans.
“[The van serves as] our processing area. So say if we have somebody that gets in trouble. They come over here,” Lieutenant Dan House of the Raleigh police said. “We issues them a student conduct referral. If they are really bad, they wind up going to jail. We also have a lost and found here.”
From up above, Younce oversees all other police activities, including dispatching officers to each area. Younce called it “the heart of the operation.”
“[From the tower] we can coordinate all of this if we have a rescue call from the stands or disorderly conduct,” Younce said. “We can immediately dispatch the officers, dispatch the rescuers to the scene. We can go out to the cameras to see what’s going on out on the streets and we can also see what’s going on in the parking lots.”
The national coverage for State’s home opener against South Carolina also brought a set of concerns.
“We started coordinating with ESPN about three weeks ago because they bring in millions of dollars of equipment. We bring in officers for security purposes for their equipment,” Younce said. “It really is a big operation.”
In addition, the fanfare associated with celebrity reporter Erin Andrews required special attention.
“We have an officer assigned to her in addition to her bodyguards,” Younce said. “We have some officers trained in security. Secret service trained us so that is one of our officers is assigned to her.”
Younce said once the field empties, the night is far from over for the officers.
“Postgame is pretty much helping people get out,” Younce said. “Some people can’t find their cars, some people fall. Highway Patrol helps to expedite people outside of the stadium.”