NEWS
Police ensure rally safety
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by Heather Quitos
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
As a city with a reputation of holding large protests, it was no surprise Monday's rally against federal illegal immigration legislation assembled more than 10,000 people in downtown Madison.
And dealing with such a large number of people is a responsibility left up to the Capitol, Madison and University of Wisconsin police.
"When we learned of this protest, we put a plan in place to help facilitate [the organizers'] needs," Madison Police Public Information Officer Mike Hanson said. "Our primary rule was the safety of individuals marching on the street."
Safety was obviously a key issue in the rally, which began in Brittingham Park and continued as young and old alike flowed to the Capitol, Hanson said.
"We want to know [the rally's] crowd estimates, and we also want to know what their message is going to be," he said. "They put on a textbook protest."
Hanson noted Madison police officers first controlled traffic during the march to the Capitol, but once the crowd congregated at the statehouse, police officers were more concerned with keeping the protest "peaceful" and "lawful."
Capitol and university police also worked with city police to keep the rally under control in their respective areas.
While the biggest crowds the university police work with are the 83,000 patrons who attend football games in the fall, UWPD Lt. William Larson said yesterday's rally was the "biggest" recent protest to his knowledge.
The last time the police department saw such a big rally, Larson said, was during the 2004 presidential election.
Hanson said the key to a successful protest lies in communication between the police department and the organizers of the rally; and according to Hanson, those organizers communicated well with police beforehand.
But the biggest problem with managing such a big event, Larson noted, is the stalling of traffic between street intersections.
"There was a rally that started by Library Mall [and] we provided traffic control for people marching to the Capitol," Larson said. "In a protest, we generally have a good idea of the route … [and] we try to work with [the organizers] as much as we can."
When UW police monitored the activity to the Capitol, Larson said all the marchers he observed were cooperative with police.
The collaborative efforts of city and university police kept the large rally under control, according to both Larson and Hanson.
And both police departments have had experience in dealing with large crowds, with the thousands of people who come into the city for Halloween and the Mifflin Street Block Party.
"It's something that we're able to communicate on in advance," Hanson said. "And in this case, it went smoothly."
