125 It had been a while since the Braves were world champions. The last time was in 1995 when the team was in a different stadium and a different jurisdiction. So there were no set plans or knowledge about how to accommodate championship crowds. However, Cobb County’s investment in sophisticated mapping and monitoring technology and staff have been tried and tested during big events. This includes home games of professional baseball’s National League Division Series, the National League Championship Series, the World Series, and security for the National Football League’s 2019 Super Bowl in Atlanta. This time the huge celebration would include a parade procession that would wind through downtown Atlanta and culminate at the Braves’ home ballpark, Truist Park. Jeremy “J. D.” Lorens, a lieutenant in charge of traffic management at the Cobb County Police Department, handled parade security using up-to-date maps and remote control of traffic lights. For home games at the ballpark, Lorens had already worked with a team of GIS specialists to apply mapping for crowd control, security, and traffic management. Now, Lorens needed the same detailed maps—outside the stadium—to create the parade route. The GIS team provided tools to help the Braves organization as well as state and county officials define and approve the route. Next, Lorens gathered barricades to match the narrow three-lane map he devised to reduce roadway width and put the crowd in proximity to players. “I knew there would be families with little kids,” he explained. “I wanted to get them as close to the parade as possible.” During the parade, GIS maps displayed the location of every officer along the route, allowing incident commanders to see where each asset was located in case of an emergency. The smooth operation of the parade allowed Lorens to craft an efficient plan for barricade removal when the procession was halfway through its route. Advanced Stadium Technology Before Truist Park opened in 2017, Cobb County authorities invested in advanced traffic management technology to move fans quickly and easily to and from the ballpark that sits near the intersection of two interstate highways. They wanted to make sure the stadium location improved rather than added to Atlanta’s traffic congestion. Lorens oversees traffic management at the ballpark and runs the control center with live feeds of 70 cameras monitoring pathways and “The Battery” entertainment district. Thirty more cameras monitor critical intersections. GIS allows Lorens and the team to visualize the location and condition of every traffic light and camera. Using these inputs and controls, he and his officers synchronize the flow of vehicle and pedestrian traffic during regular games. Cobb County’s Public Safety departments use GIS dashboards and data on a regular basis to ensure citizen Public Safety The Braves Championship Celebration parade route wove around the stadium.
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