Phoenix puts aside up to $1M for police overtime during Super Bowl Central

PHOENIX — The City of Phoenix says it has put aside some extra cash for the police department to make sure Super Bowl Central is as safe as possible.

In an effort to make sure the Phoenix Police Department is well-staffed for the impending transformation of downtown Phoenix into Super Bowl Central, Mayor Greg Stanton said the city appropriated $1 million extra dollars to cover overtime costs.

“We didn’t want the police chief or any of the commanders to have to worry about financial issues,” Stanton said. “We wanted to make sure that any public safety issue gets taken care of as quickly as possible.”

All other departments had to account for extra staffing, overtime or other costs associated with hosting Super Bowl Central into its budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

“The other departments — streets departments, parks departments — they’re all required to incorporate this into their existing budgets,” he said.

When it comes to the attractions and entertainment that will be available inside of Super Bowl Central, Stanton said the Super Bowl Host Committee has done a lot of work to raise the vast majority of money needed to put on the event.

“They raised a lot of money so that we could present ourselves in the very best way possible to the country and to the world,” Stanton said.