Fortress Hollywood: Inside the Oscars Security Machine

It’s Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, and you’re trapped in an Escalade, inching through traffic on your way to the Oscars, glamorously attired for the celebration but wishing you felt a little more festive. Instead, you’re monitoring the scene outside your window with a mounting sense of dread.

At first, it’s the long stretches of barricades and metal fencing lining Hollywood Boulevard as traffic funnels toward the Dolby Theatre. But before you even glimpse the venue, you notice the heightened security. Officers are everywhere — there are patrol cars on every corner — and more than 1000 law enforcement personnel have been deployed in the area as part of an unprecedented security operation for this year’s Oscar ceremony.

Traffic slows again, so you glance up and spot silhouettes on rooftops — they are Swat teams posted on nearby buildings. The checkpoint ahead crawls forward as officers slide mirrors beneath…