With Pittsburgh set to host the 2026 NFL Draft, Detroit police share how they kept everyone safe this year
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- By now you know the NFL draft is coming to Pittsburgh in 2026, but how soon does the planning start for keeping everyone safe?
The event is getting more popular every year and is expected to bring more than 300,000 people to the city. KDKA-TV spoke with Detroit Police about how they got ready from a public safety standpoint.
It's estimated more than 700,000 fans packed Detroit. Planning to handle all that was a year in the making. Prior to that, it was talking with past cities who have hosted it.
"We still have to operate the entire city, so we really had to balance that out. Look at what you need in the downtown area to put the draft on but you also have to service the entire city of Detroit," Detroit Police Commander Matthew Fulgenzi said.
Every week they were having meetings with the NFL. Detroit police is about three times the size of Pittsburgh police, but they say it was a team effort to secure everything. They had help from other local departments, state police and agencies like the FBI, ATF and Homeland Security, so they had thousands of officers. In addition to law enforcement, they stay in communication with businesses, so everyone was on the same page.
"Bringing everyone in, not operating in mini silos, working together as a team, and that's what made this event successful," Fulgenzi said.
Now there were some arrests during the event, but Detroit police say it was nothing that wouldn't be expected when you have nearly three-quarters of a million people coming together. They had officers in uniform and undercover to keep everyone safe.
"Sometimes people have too many drinks. We had a couple issues, nothing major," Fulgenzi said.
Now Detroit police are talking with Green Bay, who is hosting the draft next year. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey went to Detroit to speak with leaders out there about hosting the draft. Pittsburgh Public Safety said they are in the early stages of planning now but add they have hosted big events before so they have some understanding of what may be needed. Any specifics are not expected quite yet.
"Understanding you can't do this alone as an agency, partnerships are key," Fulgenzi said.