Big year in America. Semiquincentennial, also known as America250, and the United States hosts the World Cup. But the viewers of these events – and the millions of people who live in the cities that host them – may not realize that they, too, are being watched.
From Kansas City to New York, US cities hosting the World Cup have been ramping up their surveillance capabilities in the months leading up to the tournament. Security measures are high in Washington, DC, which is not hosting the World Cup, but is home to a series of spectacles this summer. Fourth of July celebrations in the nation’s capital will have an unprecedented level of surveillance. Law enforcement agencies say they can’t afford to take risks during these once-in-a-lifetime events — but privacy advocates warn that some of that surveillance won’t be reserved for this summer’s festivities.
Both the Fourth of July fireworks on the National Mall and the July 19 World Cup final in New Jersey have been designated National Special Security Events (NSSE) by the Department of Homeland Security, the most stringent security designation given by the agency. This is rare for major sporting events – the Super Bowl is always named after the NSSE – but it is a first for the 4th of July. The UFC fight at the White House in June was also NSSE, as was the official UFC viewing party at the Ellipse.
Those attending the Fourth of July fireworks display on the National Mall will have to go through airport-like security checkpoints and will not be allowed to bring folding chairs or coolers. Anti-drone measures will be in place, The Washington Post reports, as it will be bombarded by experts, counternipers, and medical personnel from several government agencies. While attendees will see these security measures, others may be close to invisible – including camera networks that track their biometrics.
The measures taken at the National Mall appear to be a response to criticism of the lack of security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was attended by a gunman who allegedly shot the Secret Service.
There will be similar measures at the World Cup final, which Donald Trump is expected to attend – and will reportedly present the trophy to the winning team.
“This is going to be a security-o-rama even if the president goes,” Jules Boykoff, author of Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sporting Washout, and FIFA’s Greed Machinehe told The Verge. “If the president leaves, that’s just a tightening of security.”
Boykoff, a professor of political science at Pacific University, said there could be an increase in ICE at the World Cup finals, and pointed out that ICE arrested rapper 21 Savage at the 2019 Super Bowl – another NSSE – saying he overstayed his visa.
Anne Toomey McKenna, an attorney responsible for privacy and biometric surveillance, said the NSSE announcement could make it easier to justify the collection of communications data under the looser standard of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, rather than the stricter requirements of the Wiretap Act.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House World Cup task force – and Rudy Giuliani’s son – said security will be beefed up at all World Cup games, even those that Trump does not attend. “You’re going to have a lot of perimeter checks because of security. You’re going to have checks when you get on public transportation to make sure you’re a valid ticket holder,” Giuliani told the Atlantic Council’s Frederick Kempe. “Football fans – or football fans – usually like to arrive late at the stadiums, 15, 20 minutes or so before the game. But Giuliani said ticket holders should know that gates open three hours before kickoff and plan to arrive early so they don’t miss the first game.
Surveillance is not limited to one-off events and actually involves building large facilities across the country. Through FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security awarded $250 million in grants to states hosting World Cup games, most of which was used to purchase anti-drone equipment, according to the report. The New York Times. The FBI has also trained local law enforcement agencies on drone mitigation. According to Giuliani, Fan Fests in all 11 cities will be hosted by counter-drone technology. It’s unclear whether these cities are using the same technology that led to the shutdown of an air terminal in El Paso earlier this year.
This will be a security-o-rama even if the president leaves.
New York City — technically one of the participating cities, even though the games are taking place across the river in New Jersey — spent $6.5 million on counter-drone technology. In Kansas City, Missouri, authorities have seized at least 16 drones since the World Cup began.
“The general rule about the World Cup and the Olympics is that local and national police use a major sporting event as their personal vehicle,” Boykoff said. “The World Cup creates a unique environment that allows for all kinds of security measures.” And in most cases, if these tools are there, they stay. Paris, for example, enabled AI video surveillance ahead of the 2024 Olympics – and is keeping it in place until the end of 2027 despite privacy concerns.
Similar camera systems have been installed across the US ahead of the World Cup, even in places far beyond the stadiums. Kansas City also plans to put facial recognition cameras on some of the city’s buses, although the state government has declined to fund the project due to privacy concerns. The city initially went ahead with the program, saying it would help identify missing persons and could thwart human trafficking efforts during a major international sporting event. City officials said the footage is considered a missing persons alert and is only kept if there is a match.
“Privacy is always a tricky thing,” Tyler Means, chief of transportation and strategy for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, said. The Washington Post. “We’ve always had cameras on our buses, it’s just new technology. I think over time it’s going to slide and people are going to see, ‘It wasn’t really different.’
The cameras are not yet operational due to technical backlogs and delays, but Kansas City plans to implement the system later this year – although the World Cup will be over by then.
The America250 celebrations will be patrolled by thousands of police, including National Guard and FBI agents, many of whom will be wearing body cameras. Several cities have expanded or renewed CCTV systems ahead of the World Cup. Seattle reportedly reactivated the cameras after FBI and Seattle Police Department officials told the mayor about “credible threats” during the games.
McKenna said increased surveillance at these events is unnecessary given the high level of risk, but said there is a problem with how biometric data is collected and stored. McKenna noted that British Columbia, which is also hosting the World Cup, has regulations on how long surveillance footage from games and other events can be kept – rules the US does not have.
Although CCTV has been around for decades, advances in camera technology – and the integration of AI – have made these systems incredibly sophisticated. The early footage “told us a lot about what was going on, but it really wasn’t any different than what the police officer standing on the street saw,” McKenna said. “That’s how US law came to the conclusion that CCTV programs are OK – because they take place in a public place, so there is no reasonable expectation of privacy risk under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
But cameras reach farther than ever—they can tilt, pan, or zoom, and can often see several miles away. They can be equipped with thermal imaging devices and facial recognition technology, all within the reach of law enforcement. Some AI software can even analyze people’s facial expressions and predict human behavior, McKenna said.
“We have advanced AI systems with powerful analytics that can comb through large amounts of data and find things in images that we didn’t know before,” McKenna said. “A police officer on the street will not be able to identify every passer-by, but facial recognition technology software is very common, and can be used together with images taken and collected by CCTV systems.”
All of this information can be sent to federal fusion centers, where information is shared between local law enforcement and federal agencies such as ICE and the FBI. McKenna explained that if there is more information sharing between local law enforcement and federal security agencies, “we lose control over how that information is used.”
“That’s part of the protections we have to have under our laws — that information collected for national security purposes is not used for domestic law enforcement purposes,” McKenna said. “We are increasingly seeing the blurring of national security measures becoming part of domestic law enforcement.”
There are still a few weeks left before the World Cup. But it doesn’t say how long all the surveillance data collected from the matches will be stored, or how it will be used.
