The gross underestimation by the Madison Police Department of crowds anticipated to pack State Street Saturday night has led some to say a larger presence of police officers could have prevented the disastrous events that included rioting, vandalism, looting and the deployment of tear gas by riot police.

Saturday night was the first time since the Vietnam War-era protests that such measures have been used in Madison.

For months prior to Halloween celebrations, city officials and the MPD debated and discussed when to plan for Halloween. The debates yielded a conclusion that last Thursday, Oct. 31, would see the largest crowds and require the greatest presence of law enforcement.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, a firsthand witness to the damage that occurred on the 400 block of State Street and the only city official present during the approximately 30 minutes in which much of the vandalism occurred, criticized the police planning for the event.

“They rolled the dice; it was a total crap shoot, and they lost,” Verveer said.”Their prediction was totally wrong. Obviously, if they could do it again, they would change their staffing and would have had more officers down there.”

While many think a larger police presence would not have had a significant effect in curbing the violence that occurred, Verveer said more police presence earlier on in the evening might have led to a less severe outcome.

“I believe that many of the problems could have been avoided if we had a strong police presence early in the evening,” Verveer said. “That would have helped to set the tone for the entire night, and would have discouraged troublemakers from trying to incite violence.”

MPD Capt. George Silverwood, who was also present on State Street Saturday night, disagreed.

“This really hasn’t happened ever,” Silverwood said. “We’ve never had any kind of incident like this, certainly not to this extent. If there had been more cops, we might have been able to deal with it quicker, but given the crowd, I don’t really know the answer to that.”

Verveer, who was amidst the crowd during the riot, criticized the lack of officers present in the 400 block of State Street when the vandalism was taking place.

“At maybe 3:45 in the morning, the most aggressive of the hoodlums took their anger out on the 400 block of State Street, and there was not a single solitary cop around,” Verveer said. “It was taking them time to suit up into their riot gear, and things continued to escalate while they were gone. There weren’t enough of them, in their opinion, to safely be in that block.”

While Verveer said the deployment of tear gas was unfortunate, he believes it was necessary.

“I think that the police operated very admirably under very trying conditions, particularly given the limited staffing they had available,” Verveer said. “The mob was larger than the number of cops that were present during the rioting, and I think it was the right choice. They didn’t have any other option, and the rioting was not coming to any sort of conclusion any time soon.”

Silverwood stressed that in previous years when there have been even bigger crowds, a large police presence has not been necessary.

“The number of officers we had out on Thursday night was more than we’ve ever had down there,” Silverwood said. “But we’ve had crowds with over 100,000 people before with less officers present, and we’ve not had problems of that nature.”

Silverwood confirmed reports that many of the rioters had been intoxicated.

“In terms of why it happened, it was for the same reasons it has happened at other campus communities all over the country,” Silverwood said. “The problem was alcohol-fueled.”

While the original estimate had been for 40 extra officers to patrol the State Street vicinity Saturday night, the number was increased to around 95 officers after new information began to come in and after Thursday’s mediocre turnout. The debate over how many officers would be needed continued until around 3 a.m. Saturday morning.

Verveer and Silverwood agreed that while significant changes would be made in how preparations for Halloween would take place next year, the festivities on State Street will carry on.

“Personally, I think State Street Halloween is an awesome tradition that should continue,” Verveer said. “It’s one of the coolest Madison traditions going.”