MSP Officials Prep For Detroit Free Press Marathon With Enhanced Safety Practices
DETROIT (WWJ) -- Detroit will be packed Sunday morning as nearly 26,000 people will participate in the 2017 Detroit Free Press Marathon.
As for security -- it'll be tight, according to Michigan State Police First Lt. Michael Shaw. He says they can't take any chances, especially after the latest attacks in Europe and most recently here in Las Vegas.
"Terrorist organizations and even home-grown terrorism that's occurring out here is using vehicles as weapons quite a bit now," Shaw said. "We see that happening in Europe quite a bit so we do some different things that you'll see during the marathon to make sure that vehicles and pedestrians aren't kind of in the same spot."
The Michigan State Police will be working with a number of other law enforcement departments on Sunday to keep marathon-goers as safe as possible. Those other law enforcement departments include Detroit Police, FBI, Canadian law enforcement and the DNR.
Shaw added that they have been working with each of those departments for about six months in preparation for this event.
Another resource the Michigan State Police is using to create the highest level of security is officials with the Boston Marathon. Shaw said they've talked with them about how they've responded and adjusted since the tragic Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 to help prevent anything like that occurring here.
"It's something that we go through and get a lot of lessons learned from talking to Boston, what happened there, what they did prior to that event and now what they are doing in the future to make sure that stuff doesn't happen again," Shaw said. "We always know that it's very difficult to say it's never going to happen here because you never know when your turn comes that way."
The Detroit Free Press Marathon officially begins right before 7 a.m. on Sunday. It begins and ends in downtown Detroit on Fort Street near First Street.
