Crisis Prevention in Charlotte

Democrats won’t have to worry about a hurricane disrupting their 2012 convention, which kicked off today. But it doesn’t take bad weather to create a storm of troubles at an event like this.

The Charlotte, NC police department will be on the front line of defense for this convention. One crisis management and prevention move they’ve made is to make it clear to potential troublemakers that no expense has been spared on defense preparations. As early as last month, the department was eagerly discussing expansion of the force and large-scale planning that’s been going on. They’ve been dropping quotes like the following, published in an AP article:

For this summer’s Democratic National Convention, Charlotte will add thousands of police from outside departments and spend millions on training, equipment and temporary barriers. But their biggest aid in crowd control will be one they didn’t have to purchase, build or teach: The layout of the city itself.

Convention-related activities will take place in the heart of the city’s central business district, which is flat and ringed by expressways. There are no nearby neighborhoods where protesters could overflow and cause trouble if violence erupts. Unlike Tampa, which is hosting this summer’s Republican convention, there is no adjoining body of water to complicate efforts to control crowds. Simply put, the police will have the protesters surrounded in secured areas.

Police Chief Rodney Monroe seems to have a solid grasp on how to properly handle protestors – leave them be, but stay watchful for events that may spark business disruptions or violent incidents. Chief Monroe stated:

“During those demonstrations, you’re going to constantly have people trying to stir things up. If they’re not making an impact, you keep moving things along. But if they start agitating people, you have to take action. You want to treat people fairly. As long as you facilitate helping the greater number of people out there demonstrating, we want to keep them on our side. Hopefully they’ll help us identify some of the agitators.”

This philosophy of incident and crisis management was already put to the test this morning, as, in a widely reported event, one group of protestors decided to break the rules. Police report that the un-permitted group of around 200 intentionally headed outside of designated parade routes. Within minutes, hundreds of bike cops descended on the scene, quickly forming a barricade with their cycles to prevent protestors from moving forward.

A small portion of the protestors refused to cooperate and did manage to obstruct a street for some time, but there was no violence from either side and, depending on which report you read, either one or no arrests. In the end, protestors spoke with police and were allowed to continue their march, but along public sidewalks, not roadways.

Certainly a promising start, but with a long list of protestors lined up to speak their minds during the Convention, officials will need to stay flexible, alert, and ready to (thoughtfully!) leap into action.

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Image credit: SrLigYnnek / Flickr