Watch: Former D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier on Selecting Security Tech

By Catherine Dorrough

Cathy Lanier is the senior vice president of security for the NFL and a former chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC). A few months after joining the NFL, she was charged with securing Super Bowl LI in Houston. She spoke about the experience during a keynote address at the Equipped 2021 virtual conference.

“It really should have been the most secure place on the planet,” she said. “In thinking that surely we have the best and most advanced technologies in the NFL, when I got here, I realized that we were still kind of doing things a little bit old-fashioned… So, the same strategy I deployed in Washington, I’ve deployed in the NFL.”

With technologies evolving ever more rapidly, Lanier’s advice is to make integration a top priority when selecting new tech, so that a department’s suite of tools all work together. She also recommends thoroughly researching privacy considerations around data management to ensure that new technology doesn’t run afoul of the law.

Watch the clip below for more.