Despite the fact that students have complained of event staff patting them down at Carter-Finley Stadium before this season’s football games, the same security procedures will be in effect this week, according to Tom Younce, chief of Campus Police.
He said the checks that have been performed on fans have not been full pat downs but limited inspections and bag checks.
Event staff has three levels of inspection: a visual inspection as people come through the gates, a bag check and a limited body check and a full pat down being the highest.
“[The event staff] does a combination of level one and two,” Younce said. “It is a violation of their policy for a male to touch a female unless she consents.”
According to Younce, event staff confiscated a box-full of illegal material — including liquor, knives, corkscrews and bike chains.
“The whole purpose of this is to have a safe atmosphere,” Younce said. “People can stop this really easy if they leave these things in their cars. We’re not out to arrest people. They have the opportunity to throw stuff out before they even get there.”
Event staff and Campus Police used video cameras for the Sept. 15 game. These cameras were only set up at student gates, because that’s where Campus Police had received most of the complaints — such as male-on-female inspections, according to Younce.
“Video was done for two reasons — to tape the people coming in and to see if event staff were doing their job,” he said.
Younce added that there was no video evidence of males checking females and that the cameras will move to other gates Saturday.
“If [male checks] happen with a female, they need to let us know that they were, not just have someone saying they saw someone else,” Younce said.
According to David Rainer, associate vice chancellor for environmental health and public safety, the event one staff was never asked to do actual pat downs — it was always the limited inspections.
“I have had concerns expressed to me dealing with the security procedures,” Rainer said. “We’ll review those at our meetings this week.”
Both Rainer and Younce agree that the overall environment around tailgating and security checks has improved since last year.
“I wish students would come to the gates earlier,” Rainer said. “But we know we’re not able to fix that.”
The security checks stem from a check the national guard performed in 2004 that aimed at identifying potential terrorist targets.
“We have one of the largest concentrations of people at the same time in the state,” Younce said. “There are about two other stadiums that seat as much as we do.”
One of the recommendations that came from the national guard was to do full pat downs. But a University task force decided against the recommendation, according to Younce.
