San Mateo County tech helps public safety teams stay connected during FIFA World Cup crowds

San Mateo County, California – Long before the last fans moved through San Mateo County on their way home from Levi’s Stadium, the work of securing the FIFA World Cup had already begun in a quieter place: inside the systems that public safety agencies use to talk to one another.

For Mike Sena, the problem was never only about stadiums, crowds or major events. It was also about the first hour of confusion that can unfold when many agencies suddenly have to work as one. A password fails. A link is missing. A contact number is buried somewhere. A different department is using a different tool. In a crisis, those small delays can become big ones.

Sena, a County of San Mateo employee serving on special assignment as executive director of the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, had seen that pattern too many times. NCRIC serves as the region’s Fusion Center, helping gather, review and share public safety intelligence with local, state, federal and international partners.

“Every time I’ve gone to an emergency operations center during a critical incident, no one can log in,” Sena said. “That’s what you spend the first hour doing — getting people logged in.”

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So instead of creating yet another platform for agencies to learn, Sena and his team looked for something already familiar. The answer came through Microsoft Teams, a tool many agencies already had on their phones and computers. From there, the platform grew into a secure network with mapping, dashboards, document sharing, photo sharing and direct communication tools built for public safety work.

Today, more than 4,000 public safety officials across the United States, Canada and Mexico use it to coordinate security tied to the FIFA World Cup. Local police, emergency managers, federal partners and international counterparts can share suspicious activity, track incidents and reach the right people without chasing email addresses or waiting for calls to be returned.

The system does not show everything to everyone. Access depends on each user’s role, allowing agencies to collaborate while keeping sensitive information protected. That matters when one incident in one city could resemble another hundreds of miles away.

In the Bay Area, that coordination followed the flow of World Cup crowds through San Francisco International Airport, local transit routes and San Mateo County. Wednesday’s 2-0 United States win over Bosnia and Herzegovina closed out the sixth and final match at Levi’s Stadium.

Sheriff Ken Binder said no FIFA-related incidents were reported in San Mateo County, crediting deputies, public safety partners and NCRIC for helping thousands of people move safely through the region.

For Sena, the same idea now reaches beyond soccer. The platform has helped with human trafficking investigations, Super Bowl security, outlaw motorcycle gang investigations, cyber incidents and election security. San Mateo County is also adapting it for fire, law enforcement, public health and public works.

“It isn’t about reinventing the wheel,” Sena said. “We’re just putting the tread on the wheel so it works better.”