Super Bowl security ramped up

ARLINGTON, Texas, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Security for the Super Bowl, always high, is being ramped up in Texas to include robots, bomb-sniffing dogs and other high- and low-tech measures, police say.

The Super Bowl has long been considered a potential terrorist target, law enforcement officials say. The increased security for Super Bowl XLV Feb. 6 will include a widespread endeavor from accompanying teams to and from hotels, protecting the facilities, crowd control and restricting airspace above Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas, The Dallas Morning News reported.

"They got this down to a fine science," said Arlington Police Assistant Chief James Hawthorne.

NFL officials acknowledge everyone has to be flexible to changing security needs but it comes down to the basics: the event is the Super Bowl of football and not the Super Bowl of security.

"We do have experience putting on large-scale events. We've been planning specifically for this Super Bowl for the last three years," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. "So we've engaged multiple agencies on the federal, state and local level to come up with a plan that continues to evolve."

Every person entering the stadium will be subject to a "light patdown" and going over by a magnetometer wand, Hawthorne said.

"In terms of national security, it doesn't get any bigger other than a presidential inauguration," Hawthorne said. "So this is a big deal. We take the security of this event very seriously, and we have to."