Be prepared is the motto of agencies in charge of handling protesters, who don’t like the restrictions.

The security command center looks like a room straight out of a Hollywood thriller — its long rows of tables set with phones and laptops, flat screens on the walls with zooming satellite images of downtown Denver.

It’s a 24-hour nerve center for command-level authorities keeping a watchful eye over security for this week’s Democratic National Convention. If protesters — or anyone — tries anything unlawful, leaders of 62 agencies ranging from the Secret Service to the city’s waste department will be watching and responding.

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Convention host cities can plan for the traffic, the parties and the speeches that come with 6,000 politically charged delegates and 15,000 deadline-stressed media.

But until protesters show up, local authorities — like those in St. Paul preparing for next week’s Republican National Convention — don’t know exactly what to expect. So they prepare for everything.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“Anything that could possibly happen is talked about in the advance plan,” said Malcolm Wiley of the Secret Service, the lead security agency.

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