Nellie Pou Asks Kansas City Police Chief About World Cup Prep Following Superbowl Parade Shooting

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During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Nellie Pou (D-NJ) asked Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves about her safety preparations for the FIFA World Cup game at Arrowhead Stadium.

Transcript

00:00Poe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, thank you to all the witnesses that are providing testimony.

00:09Chief Graves, thank you. Thank you for joining us today. I appreciate your time and willingness

00:15to share insight on how we can better support our state and local partners and prepare our

00:22communities with high-profile events like the FIFA World Cup. Your testimony is especially

00:28important given the continuing toll of gun violence and the mass shootings in our country.

00:36What should have been a joyful event turned tragic when an argument escalated into gunfire

00:47during the celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory. Sadly, one person was killed

00:54and at least 20 others were injured, including eight children. The timeline in the after-action

01:00report shows just how quickly a situation can escalate and become deadly. Gun violence remains

01:09a persistent threat that law enforcement must plan for among all other threats we have heard

01:16about today. According to the gun violence archives, there have already been at least 231 mass shooting

01:29in the United States this year, resulting in 175 deaths and over 1,000 injuries. We must do all that

01:38we can to protect fans, athletes, innocent bystanders, especially children, from this ongoing threat during

01:44our major public events. Chief Graves, from your experience, how do firearms affect our police plan

01:52for security at mass gathering events and what did your department learn from the parade shooting

02:00about the presence of firearms in the crowds? As we plan for all situations, obviously localized gun violence

02:10is one of those. You know, when you look at these mass gatherings, we're looking at loan attacks, we're looking

02:15at coordinated terrorist attacks, but also localized gun violence. And on that day, on February 14th of 2024,

02:23there were two groups of people that had a perceived provocation with one another that led to gun violence.

02:31The lack of, I guess, the respect for life, conflict resolution, emotional regulation, and just going straight

02:44to guns in a conflict is a problem in many cities in America. And I would say, you know, as we plan for those,

02:52we want to make sure that we have enough officers that are on the ground that can respond, that can immediately

02:57stop a threat. Or, in fact, if we see something brewing, we can deescalate it. In this situation,

03:02we had a lot of officers right in the area where the shooting happened. At times, law enforcement is no

03:08longer a deterrent when someone decides to pull a trigger. You know, we've seen that time again, not

03:13only in my city, but also across the United States. So just making sure that we are properly deployed,

03:19and that we also have the training that you saw on display of officers running towards the threat when you

03:25have what you believe to be an active shooter. Thank you. Thank you. And Chief, very quickly,

03:32how do police department ensure that people are secure, not just at the main event, but also in

03:39areas where fans gather to watch the event at places like the Fan Fest, bars and restaurants? And how do we

03:47ensure that people are safe from the altercations that may erupt into these mass shootings,

03:55or other major incidents? What's your thought on that? I want to make a note of

04:02the Super Bowl parade rally where shots were fired. You know, we had officers there at the ready,

04:09and looking forward into planning for some of those, that's one of the challenges of those mass

04:14gatherings. It's an open-air public event. We had the parade route secured. We had plenty of officers

04:20in and around the rally and along the route. But of course, if you don't have a

04:26a perimeter secured entry, that is when you have some of those challenges in that those public open

04:32air events. It's open to all. And I would say we had close to a million people in and around that area

04:38on February 14th in 2024. So looking forward, when you are looking at some of those events,

04:43whether that be Fan Fest or some of the matches that are going to take place at Arrowhead Stadium,

04:48there are levels and levels of security that will be in place to make sure that we stop any threat

04:54before it comes into the door. You know, we will continue to do that in and around some of the

04:59events. So we will also not, in addition to those officers that are on duty, we also will have off-duty

05:05officers that will be working in different venues to make sure that those areas are safe also.

05:09Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

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