Festival Aftermath Arrests Down from 2011
By: Tina Shively
Updated: July 23, 2012
Officers only arrested one of the over 20,000 people estimated at the event for trespassing during the festival itself.
However after it ended, they were forced to beef up patrols.
Police set up a command post at Upper Falls and North Clinton, almost 2 miles away from Frontier Field, the site of the actual festival.
Their goal was to keep the peace in the neighborhood, an area where celebrations cause problems every year.
16 people were arrested in the melee that followed the festival.
Mounted patrols and even the SWAT team were on standby for crowd control.
Police say they used pepper spray and other tactics to disperse the crowds that were throwing rocks and eggs at officers and cars.
The department spent about $30,000 dollars on overtime, it was budgeted in after last year's post-festival issues.
Police say this year's crowd was overall smaller in size than in 2011, when 28 arrests are made.
The RPD used social media and even YouTube videos in both English and Spanish to spread the message of anti-violence ahead of this year's festival.
They asked organizers to end the festival earlier in the day, back in 2011
It now wraps up during daylight hours, and police say that's really cut down on the after hours chaos.
Deputy Chief Mike Wood says his department will continue to work with organizers to come up with ways to keep the number of arrests down.
