Photo Credit: Milan Malkomes
Madison Square Garden’s controversial surveillance cameras were not at full capacity at Taylor Swift’s wedding, with the majority of security staff forcibly locked out of the network during the event according to a new report.
Despite Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan touting the venue’s face-recognition and surveillance camera network as a primary reason MSG is the “most secure” venue in the country, those cameras were apparently not in full swing at Taylor Swift’s wedding.
According to a report from Wired, on the night of July 2 and 3—before and of Taylor Swift’s wedding to Travis Kelce—MSG locked nearly all of its security team out of the surveillance network.
An internal document reviewed by Wired ordered a seven-hour lockdown of Madison Square Garden’s video management system, managed by security tech company Genetec. An unspecified MSG executive issued the order, which was enacted by Genetec “due to a client privacy request.”
The move meant that security staffers who usually monitor the building’s internal cameras and the accompanying face-recognition software were prevented from doing so. According to the document, only a handful of company leaders and engineers were allowed access to their Genetec accounts, while the rest were “disabled.”
MSG security personnel were warned that if they “somehow still have access to cameras after 3PM,” they would be “forcibly logged off.”
It’s no secret that Swift and Kelce’s teams left no stone unturned in ensuring that, throughout every stage of their planning, things were kept private inside Madison Square Garden.
Guests had to sign a nondisclosure agreement before receiving a digital invitation, while tents were set up outside the venue for cars to park in so the wedding’s high-profile guests could enter and exit in relative secrecy. Attendees were told there was a no-phone policy, while the only detailed description of the wedding posted on social media was quickly removed.
Madison Square Garden and its sister venues host private events fairly often, such as NBCUniversal’s annual takeover of Radio City Music Hall, but the cameras stay on for such events. That makes the Swift-Kelce wedding a unique case.
But given the approximate $1.2 to $1.6 million spent to secure the venue, some would say that price tag comes with the privilege to request some privacy. Even more so for two of the most famous people alive on Earth.
“The Garden has no windows, is covered by a roof, and access to the venue can be tightly controlled,” former NYPD intelligence official John Miller told CNN. “That limits the ability of paparazzi, helicopters with powerful, long-distance cameras, or drones to capture the kinds of images they have at other celebrity weddings in outdoor venues.”
However, a security professional who is “deeply familiar with the venue” told Wired that “people who have their wedding at Madison Square Garden don’t make that choice for privacy.”
“Clearly the technology is not that helpful if it wasn’t needed at one of MSG’s highest-profile events of the year,” said Michelle Dahl, executive director for the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “I don’t blame them for turning it off, but let’s be clear: privacy shouldn’t just be afforded to the rich and famous.”
James Dolan’s company has been experimenting with biometric surveillance at its venues since 2018, including New York’s Beacon Theater and Radio City Music Hall, as well as Sphere in Las Vegas. The company asserts that the tech is a security measure that sets it apart, but its face-recognition system has been used to keep tabs on certain individuals—particularly those critical of the company and/or James Dolan himself.
In April, an attorney representing a police officer was banned because his client is suing Madison Square Garden. A mother trying to take her then-9-year-old daughter to a Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall was flagged and denied entry because the firm she worked for was in a legal dispute with a Dolan-controlled entity. MSG security monitored a transgender woman with these systems while she was in the venue, and even noted when she entered and exited the bathroom.
Earlier this month, 404 Media revealed a leaked database of high-profile visitors to MSG, some of whom were designated as some sort of “risk,” as well as those who identified as LGBTQIA.
MSG sued Wired for defamation over its coverage of that database. However, the company acknowledged that it maintains a “Threat Management notes field” for VIP guests that address “prior incidents at MSG venues, the conduct or intensity of an individual’s fanbase or associates, or identity-verification concerns,” among other things.
MSG maintains that its “support for the LGBTQIA community is indisputable,” and the sexual orientation field was used for “inclusion-oriented outreach, including Pride events, community engagement, sales opportunities, and donations.” The company also noted that only 4% of the celebrities tagged with a LGBTQIA orientation also have threat-management notes.
