During the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting on 09/28/2022, Police Chief Todd Thomas gave a report on the License to Cruise and Octoberfest events.
He was quite pleased with how the events had taken place and told the committee that they had no major incidents or disturbances that needed police resources. Usually at Octoberfest, they have their first lost child early in the day, but this year the first one didn’t happen until after 3PM.
He said that the crowd was good and when the events were over everybody left College Avenue quickly letting things return to normal.
During License To Cruise, the Appleton Police Department had 28 officers that worked as well as 11 Community Service Officers. At Octoberfest they had 30 officers broke up between a couple different shifts and 12 CSOs; they also had a couple professional communication technicians along with some supervisors. The total cost for both events combined, including both straight time and overtime for the police department, was a little over $20,000.
They also had a lot of support. The Department of Public Works provided some resources as well as the Fire Department. 4 State Troopers came down and helped work College Avenue. The IT Department helped with IT issues. The Parks and Recreation Department loaned the police a couple Utility Terrain/Task Vehicles. The Outagamie/Brown County Bomb Squad was also available. Additionally, I may have misheard, but it sounded like he said they had an MRAP staged, “but never needed it.” [I mean, I would hope they didn’t need a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle.]
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) thanked him for their efforts to keep the events safe. He said he had been there when the License to Cruise event was over and he thought they cleared the avenue in a methodical way. He knew everybody was revving their engines and wanting to leave at the same time, but the officers did a good job of directing traffic and making sure everyone had their headlights on.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked if they wrote any citations for excessive noise during the License to Cruise event.
Chief Thomas was not aware of any such citations having been written, but he said he would double check and get back to Alderperson Schultz. He said that the event emptied out in around 10 minutes.
Alderperson Croatt said it was loud at the very end but that noise was very short-lived.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=995752&GUID=FFDBE458-7879-439A-A98E-24E13D33659E
Be the first to reply