Police and emergency personnel from multiple jurisdictions converge on Kennywood Park late Saturday night in West Mifflin, Pa., for reports of shots fired inside the sprawling amusement park. Several people, including two teenagers, were wounded by gunfire late Saturday at the amusement park southeast of Pittsburgh, which was kicking off a Halloween-themed festival. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via Associated Press

Nate Guidry

Kennywood officials gathered outside the amusement park in West Mifflin on Wednesday morning to address safety concerns at the park after a shooting Saturday night sent three people, including two teenagers, to hospitals.

Kennywood general manager Mark Pauls and Evolv Technology vice president Rick Abraham discussed the security measures that were in place the evening of the shooting and the steps the park is taking to make sure a similar incident does not happen again.

“This is a weapons detection system, not a metal detection system,” Abraham said. “The technology is designed to allow people to walk through the system with the metal we know they have on them like smartphones and keys.”

Evolv Technology provides the weapons detection system that Kennywood uses at its security check-in points.

Pauls explained the park’s existing chaperone policy requires anyone under 17 to be accompanied by an adult over 21 at all times.

Masks also will be banned from the park after 6 p.m. except for medical masks, and they will be conducting more bag checks and closely monitor perimeter fences.

“If you come in and you have minors, we just check to make sure there is an adult with those minors,” Pauls said. “If there are more than four minors, we make them register. When we instituted the policy, we had minors in the parking lot soliciting adults to be their chaperone. It does work; it’s effective.”

In the future, Pauls said there will be double the amount of police presence every day at the park.

Kennywood security officers do not carry weapons. Pauls said that is what the large police presence is for.

Pauls wants to make sure that he and his team take every step necessary to make sure people feel safe to return to the park.

“Obviously, I want them to come back,” Pauls said. “When we talk (about) doubling the police, that’s a significant investment. I want them to feel comfortable with the screening method. We, just like everyone else, are thinking about that fence line and make sure nothing gets past or over the fence, and that will be our goal moving forward.”