While attending a sports game, a fan probably notices the amount of people in the stands, the other team’s warm-ups, how well the team they are rooting for is performing and other things going on in the facility where the game is being held. But they probably don’t notice two uniformed police officers or event management personnel on the floor who are there to make sure no illegal or medical incidents occur or get out of hand.

The Bank of Kentucky Center works with an outside management company called SMG. SMG requires the BOKC to have two uniformed police officers at each basketball game. From there it is up to the school, athletics department and university police to figure out how many officers they would like to have in attendance at any athletic event the university hosts.

“At non-basketball events, under conference rules, we always have an event management person on staff,” said Chris Hafling, associate athletic director. “We serve as event management and security staff for all other events and then we have direct access to campus police if we should need them.”

If it is widely known that there will be a large crowd in attendance at a sporting event, police and university staff attendance will increase.

“For example, the UK men’s soccer exhibition game… Last year we had a really good crowd,” Hafling said. “Any game with a big crowd, whether basketball or not, will have two uniformed officers there. We didn’t have any incidents. We just wanted it because of the amount of people expected to be there.”

Estimated attendance at any game bases how much staffing will be there, according to NKU Police Chief Jason Willis.

“It always depends on the crowd,” Willis said. “Our hope is that in becoming D-I, crowds will get larger and the fan base will grow which will result in more officers working events.”

According to Willis, drunk driving related to sports games at NKU is never an issue, along with tailgating and unruly fans.