Ashley Moody Discusses Security Measures At LA28 Olympics Amid Anti-ICE Protests

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee hearing last month, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) asked LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games CEO Reynold Hoover about event security at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

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00:00Senator Moody. Thank you chair, ranking member, an incredibly important hearing.

00:06Thank you for taking the time to lead this hearing this morning. From the

00:12state of Florida, you can imagine this is of great interest to us. We have, we

00:17host numerous international and national sporting events. I think during my time

00:22as Attorney General in Florida we've led, we've hosted back-to-back Super Bowls,

00:28security of our large events, sporting events in particular, is of utmost

00:36importance to us, especially since we are also a state committed to law and order

00:43and consistently striving to be the example of how you can maintain a safe

00:49community and state for the citizens that we've pledged to do and as a

00:55government. General, thank you for your service to our nation. I was just at

01:00West Point watching the graduation a couple of weeks ago. The oldest boy in our

01:04family just graduated from there and I'm always mindful of the greatness of this

01:10nation rests on the backs of so many that served us and we are grateful to you.

01:15There have been traditional security threats associated with these large-scale

01:19events from checkpoints, human trafficking even. We would often in preparation as

01:26Attorney General would host large-scale human trafficking trainings for law

01:30enforcement, but not just law enforcement, our other stakeholders, the

01:33hospitality industry. All of these things are necessary. I think what is unique now,

01:38and we're watching it on TV right as we speak, is the necessity of having strong

01:45leadership both state and local in cooperation with federal authorities to

01:50maintain law and order. And you know I'm hoping in the future that international

01:55and national events take into consideration what kind of leadership is is

02:00offered at the state level because you can see when you have weak leadership in

02:06terms of safety and security and law and order, you often see civil unrest that

02:13could have been avoided. And you're gonna have your work cut out for you in LA. I

02:19mean that's just a fact and we're watching it play out right now. In fact in

02:24Florida we have strong concerns because in 2024 we had security breaches at the

02:30Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida where eight and that's going to be where eight

02:34FIFA Club World Cup matches including the opening match and seven FIFA World Cup

02:38matches including the bronze final match will be played. We saw spectators able to

02:45get around gates and hop fences and climb through ventilation systems to avoid

02:50security personnel and all of that takes the cooperation of not just federal

02:54authorities and on-site but leading up to the events local authorities working

03:00and providing intel to make sure this kind of things don't happen. So I'm watching

03:03what's playing out right now in LA we talked about what keeps you up at night

03:09what keeps me up at night is this is happening in our country and I fear if in

03:15LA specifically that you're gonna have your work cut out for you and have to

03:19bring to bear all of the talents and experiences you used in the military but

03:23all of your relationships working with state and locals and hopefully they'll come

03:27around to their senses by then and work with the federal government to ensure

03:30security and I wish you well with that that is a challenge that I can't

03:35believe we're having to address in our nation right now. Dr. Lagone I wanted to

03:40talk to you about developing technologies drones are presenting very unique risks

03:45right now to large-scale sporting events we're seeing a lot of drone activity

03:51over military bases right now I've introduced a bill to combat taking video

03:57using drones because one of our laws has a loophole that allows for that to happen

04:04it's illegal to take pictures using drones of military installations but not video

04:08so we're trying to update our laws close loopholes I'm very concerned with drones

04:13and how they might be used to undermine security and safety of patrons attending

04:18sporting events families against fentanyl has been warning for a long time

04:22about the the fentanyl coming into this country that's being stockpiled in 2021

04:27just in that one year it was enough to kill the entire US population multiple

04:32times over and they have a study that just horrified me that drones could be

04:37used to release fentanyl I know that you have thought through this we are now as

04:43senators and one of my other committees determining how we might be able to

04:47better use state and locals to help with some of the threats from drones do you

04:51have any suggestions where the federal government might provide better laws or

04:56resources to the state and federal excuse me state and local law enforcement to

05:01help combat those threats thank you so much for that question drones are

05:08something that keep me up at night because you see them in other theaters one of

05:12the the problems with that though is that most of our research has been done

05:16about drones that are in the Middle East or in Mexico we don't have any

05:20comprehensive studies in the United States looking at how they work in our

05:24operating environment so even with this legislation we don't know how it's going

05:28to deter or even have any ramifications because there's no framework in the

05:34United States about how to integrate all of this information so one of the

05:39things that I would recommend is for us to get a better handle on what's

05:43happening with all of the downed drones in the United States because we do have

05:48them in areas of war we know that Iranian sponsored groups are using them much

05:55more over there and we are able to to use technology to understand them but we

06:00don't have them here in the US and so I think what you're talking about is a

06:04really important question but we just don't have the answers right now because

06:07we don't have any kind of systematic way to evaluate them thank you and if there

06:12were studies out there that people had conducted on their own our groups very

06:16interested in the security of our large-scale events those would be of

06:20interest to you certainly I know but if you do come across those please forward

06:24we're trying to collect as many as we can please forward those to us so we may

06:28consider them for future legislation yeah that that would be great we have a

06:31large-scale study right now funded by science and technology directorate where

06:36we're trying to codify what they're used for and what the supply chain was to

06:40create them and that's why I've learned that there's nothing out there like it

06:44that there's nothing out there

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