Tens of millions of dollars are headed to Texas to help law enforcement cover the costs of securing the World Cup.
“It costs money. It’s expensive,” Senator John Cornyn said.
Cornyn announced Thursday that Texas will get around $100 million of the $625 million in federal funding from the Big Beautiful Bill to reimburse law enforcement agencies in DFW and Houston responsible for securing the FIFA World Cup.
“While fans and athletes are gearing up for the games behind the scenes, federal, state, and local law enforcement were working together along with emergency management teams to make sure that these games are safe,” Cornyn said.
North Texas is expected to see three to four million visitors, around 100,000 of them a day.
Much of the funding will go toward overtime to police departments, including Dallas and Arlington. Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux says DPD is now dialing down how many officers it will need for the World Cup.
“If we need extra officers out there spending a lot of money on overtime, we’ll use some of this money to reimburse the city for overtime,” Comeaux said.
“We’ve never had anything quite like this. We’ve got tried and true public safety plans that we will implement and bring to bear on these World Cup games,” Leland Strickland, Assistant Chief for the Arlington Police Department, said.
Other recently approved funding will go to technology, including drones.
“You saw the counter-UAS money also come through. I think that’s a big concern, obviously, so that money is coming down from the federal government also,” Rick Burkhead, Regional Safety & Security Liaison for the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, said.
Christina Foley, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret service has been named the federal coordinator for the Dallas games and will help oversee the coordination between federal and local agencies.
“FIFA has a component that they’re looking at intelligence, local law enforcement, state law enforcement, fusion centers, everybody’s a part of this as a combined effort,” Christina Foley, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, said.
“These nine games will be the equivalent of having hosted multiple Super Bowls in a row week after week. It’s an incredible opportunity to market our neck of the woods,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said.
