Nov 25, 2009 5:09 pm US/Pacific
49ers Changing Policy After 4-Year-Old's Pat-Down
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
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Candlestick Park during a San Francisco 49er Game.
Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
When you go to a football game, you're going to get patted down. But should a 4-year-old to be separated from her dad and frisked? A North Bay 49ers fan asked CBS 5 to investigate that.
She may be the smallest student at cheerleading school in Rohnert Park, but at age four, Kalani Gonzales already dreams big. She wants to be a cheerleader for the 49ers. It's dream that came from watching Sunday morning football with her single parent dad Mark Gonzales.
"She gets excited when the cheerleaders come on because she sees them with the pompoms," he said.
So last month dad took this little niner fan to her first game against the Titans. But heading into the stadium he recalled, "A lady came and was like sir, sir, she needs to come over here."
Gonzales said before he knew it, security whisked his daughter away.
"They didn't ask me. Nobody asked my permission or anything. They just kind of grabbed her hand from me," he said. They put her in a different line, for a pat-down search. "I saw the lady ask her to put her arms out..and you could feel the vibe amongst the whole crowd just go wow. And then the crowd started booing." Which made little Kalani cry.
"I wanted my daddy," she said.
"It was just kind of an uncomfortable feeling just to know that someone was frisking my daughter as if she were some kind of terrorist," said the girl's father.
Gonzales asked us to investigate, so we asked Jim Mercurio with the 49ers about those fan searches.
"The 49ers are concerned as part of our business is the safety and security of our fans, its number one," he said.
Mercurio said the team follows the NFL's recommended best practices, also used by the Oakland Raiders, a pat-down for everyone who attends a game.
"Anybody that comes into the building, absolutely," he said. "The policy states anybody and everybody coming into the gate needs to be patted down. It's just not worth it for us to take the chance."
For many fans, it's probably not an issue. But some, like Gonzales, feel the searches are intrusive. In fact, a few years ago, the ACLU sued over those pat-downs on behalf of a Danville couple in an ongoing case that went all the way to the California Supreme Court. The court said there's a much more important issue in play here: privacy.
"It goes way beyond football," said Alan Schlosser with the ACLU. He said the state constitution protects Californians' privacy, including physical privacy at businesses. "They can't say that if you want to use our services you have to give up your privacy rights."
When the case goes to trial the Niners will have to show why those pat-downs are absolutely necessary.
"They would have to prove that they have a legitimate justification for this policy, and that there aren't alternative ways of protecting safety that would be adequate," Schlosser said.
We asked Mercurio, if the policy was an invasion of privacy.
"We don't view it that way," he said. "We view it as this is an event. It's a private event, and we notify you 'here are our policies and in order for you to attend our games you are going to have to go thru these procedures.'"
But the Niners do have one new procedure. Mercurio said the team will no longer separate families in those security lines.
And as for Kalani and her dad, "I absolutely apologize for the little girl having to feel that way."
The team is willing to make good, he said, maybe by introducing Kalani to the real 49er cheerleaders, giving her something to cheer about, for sure.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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