A lieutenant from the Beverly Hills Police Department admitted that there was “definitely increased security” at Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, and that there were a lot more “behind-the-scenes” security measures than in previous years.
“There was definitely increased security and it was more visible this year than in past years,” Lt. Lincoln Hoshino told TheWrap, though he couldn’t elaborate on any details of the measures taken. “We brought in more resources this year that were behind the scenes.”
The Golden Globes were held at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and attracted A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Schumer, Matt Damon and more. All of Santa Monica Blvd., which runs alongside the hotel, was shut down, and unlike previous years attendees couldn’t pull up to the venue themselves, having to take shuttles from surrounding parking lots instead.
There were multiple metal detectors in place, and law enforcement armed with automatic weapons toured the venue before, during and after the live broadcast. Moreover, there was heightened security to get into the individual after parties.
“There was security within security within security,” said Hoshino. “I believe it was at the InStyle party, you had to get through their security after you passed the security to get into the hotel.”
The heightened security came after a seeming spike in terror attacks around the globe, including in Paris where at least 128 people died and 180 were wounded in November. Since then, ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, has threatened additional cities like New York and Washington D.C, as well as Munich and Vatican City.
“Obviously, we’re moving forward with an abundance of caution,” added Hoshino. “This is a world-renowned event that occurs live on TV. One of the main concerns was the time slot of 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., when the event was live, and if someone wants to gain some notoriety, why not during a live event?”
Hoshino also said that the Beverly Hills Police Department felt it did everything necessary to secure the event, but “a lot of that was incumbent on the hotel and the level of security they were comfortable with.”
Revelers hoping to attend Golden Globes after parties waited in line for up to three hours in a parking lot off of Avenue of the Stars to take a shuttle to the hotel. However, the Beverly Hills Police Department said it had nothing to do with the planning of that, as they took care of “external security of the event, such as traffic control.”