Last Halloween, the Athens Police Department reported 75 arrests and was tasked with maintaining crowd control without riot gear when a fight involving 11 people broke out in a rowdy crowd on Court Street.
In addition to regularly implemented policies in preparation for the Halloween block party, the Athens Police Department and Athens Service Safety Director have both devised new ways to ensure that safety and order can be maintained in the midst of large crowds.
“Last year we didn’t have any place to store our riot gear that was convenient to Court Street," APD Lt. Ralph Harvey said. “Being stored at the station is not ideal in the event of an outbreak of crowd violence.”
This year, the riot gear will be stored in a mobile van that will travel up and down court street to one of four designated “rally points” in case of an emergency so that officers can quickly have access to riot gear.
There are 40 bags filled with riot gear that include chest and leg padding, a baton, shield mask, gas mask, and tear gas. These are available for the 27 APD officers on foot and 4 mounted on horses, with overflow for some of the officers coming in from other towns.
30 footed and 30 mounted officers are paid $150 to help aid the APD and Ohio University police throughout the night, but they do not necessarily have riot gear.
“We are able to handle riot situations through our own training, so it’s not necessary for outside city officers to be equipped with riot gear and trained in riot behavior,” Harvey said. “In the event of a riot, we will put our own officers in the riot lane and have out of town officers follow up behind to make arrests.”
The city has also decided to make changes to their regular street pattern this Halloween, making Mill Street one-way eastbound towards Elliot Street starting Friday at 3 p.m. and ending Sunday morning.
“Mill is becoming more of a party area each Halloween, creating a lot of pedestrian traffic,” Assistant Service Safety Director Rob Lucas said. “Making the road one-way in the direction away from Court Street will lower the amount of people in the area as well as lowering the chance of people getting hit by car traffic."
This setup will also allow for the flow of traffic to be away from Court Street, which the city hopes will aid in crowd dispersion.
“We’ve set up bandstands at the North and South ends of Court Street the past few years and placed dumpsters and portable toilets intermittently, all in mind of crowd compaction,” Lucas said. “When crowds stop moving, that’s when trouble arises.”
Despite mass preparation for a worst-case scenario crowd uprising, the most common charges on Halloween according to APD are for public urination or carrying an open container.
“The most important thing to us is that safety and the law are maintained,” Harvey said.
Alongside help from outside officers and OUPD, OU will also help the APD maintain order with their standard 100 “Green Jacket Volunteers” strolling campus property with walkie-talkies to police from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
“The student fests the past two years especially demonstrate the potential for disaster when crowds congregate, and any time you take a community this size and have a huge influx of people flock to it, you must plan,” Associate Director for Residential Education Judy Piercy said. “Halloween in Athens is a huge event, and it’s just about negating the risks of crowd behavior.”
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