Fans walking into Hilton Coliseum for the NCAA tournament this weekend should prepare for bag searches and heightened security.

“At other games, we just do visual searches with the option to ask to look in bags or purses,” said Brian Dornsbach, assistant services manager for Iowa State Center. “This time, we will have visual searches as well as people actually searching bags and purses.”

Dornsbach estimated the security team will add about 15 people – Department of Public Safety and Ames police officers – to its regular staff just to conduct searches.

They will also patrol the building during the game – something Dornsbach said is a good idea.

“It’s wise just to have more people in the building,” he said.

ISU NCAA Tournament Manager Julie Manning encouraged fans to get to Hilton earlier than usual.

“Security is usually good, but it will be heightened,” Manning said. “The key is to get there early.”

Manning said the NCAA sets the guidelines for the host schools, but each site is responsible for implementing them in the way that best fits the school.

“We have known for two months that security would be increased,” she said. “Since Sept. 11, it took [the NCAA] a while to decide on a procedure.”

Dornsbach said some of the policies the NCAA added are the searching of bags and purses and making sure more security staff are at the door.

The heightened security guidelines go beyond basketball games, however.

“If somebody ships in a box, it has to be accounted for,” Manning said. “Even the basketball staff will be under heightened security at their entrance.”

Dornsbach said hosts of the first and second rounds of the tournament, such as Iowa State, have different situations than the hosts of the third and fourth rounds.

“The third and fourth round will have more security,” Dornsbach said.

Still, he said, officers will be in Hilton around the clock during the tournament.

“There will be 24-hour security at Hilton plus the visual and bag searches,” Dornsbach said. “The security will be walking around all night long.”

Although the staff will be increased, he said operating costs won’t increase drastically.

Besides the extra time entering the game and extra people walking around, Manning said the fans will not notice much.

She said she does not expect any major problems.

“The security will just be wandering and, if they see anything suspicious, they’ll react,” she said.