Super Bowl 2020

Super Bowl 2020: San Francisco prepares for safe Super Bowl celebrations on Sunday

ByKate Larsen KGO logo

Saturday, February 1, 2020

SF prepares for safe Super Bowl celebrations on Sunday

"We don't want a happy occasion of celebration to turn into anything that creates a challenge where someone is hurt," said San Francisco Mayor London Breed regarding Super Bowl Sunday.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Mayor London Breed, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott, and San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson outlined plans Friday for Super Bowl Sunday in San Francisco.

"We are really excited that the San Francisco 49ers are in the Super Bowl," said Mayor Breed, who tempered her Super Bowl enthusiasm, with a call to safety.

"We don't want a happy occasion of celebration to turn into anything that creates a challenge where someone is hurt," the mayor said.

After the Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014, dangerous riots erupted on the streets of San Francisco.

"It was a nightmare out there, riot police, and people going crazy," said Angelo Basso, who owns Delirium in the Mission District. He says he's nervous about what this Sunday night might bring to his bar and neighborhood.

"We have extra security coming in and extra bartenders, and I don't know when I'm going home that night," he said.

Two weeks ago, when the 49ers clinched the NFC Division title, a SFPD motorcade drove through the Mission District when people spilled onto the streets.

"It gets a little rowdy, but it's fun," said Marty Barela, who took the video of the police and lines of honking cars, from her window on 25th Street. "I get worried when I hear firecrackers," she said.

SFPD Chief Bill Scott joined the mayor at Kezar Stadium press conference, and said they will have extra officers deployed throughout the city.

"When it goes beyond celebration and goes to criminal activity, particularly assaults on the officers who are there to help the community, we have to step in and we have to get control of that," he said.

"My biggest concern is the safety of the folks that work for our department," said Chief Jeanine Nicholson, about her firefighters who are paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

"We have had incidents in the past of folks climbing up on our fire engines and the like, and we're not able to get through and our members haven't felt safe," she said.

To sign up for Super Bowl emergency alerts in San Francisco with AlertSF, you can send a text to the number "888777" with the words "SF49ERS" to receive notifications on Sunday about street closures, any incidents, and areas to avoid if there is heightened activity.

And if the 49ers win on Sunday, information about future events and celebrations will be sent out with AlertSF.

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