The answer to your first question would be...the question is faulty. No amount of police presence could "insure" the safety of the crowd. As long as someone is willing to perish in the attempt, we know that a criminal/deranged person or persons could create great mayhem in any such place where thousands gather. So I'll say "Less than what they're using now, especially the ones that seem to be there just for the team".cashman966 wrote:In your opinion how many officers does it take to insure the safety of the coaches and players as well as the 100,000 plus people in the stands? Just exactly how much do you feel is being wasted?
My answer to the second question is..."A lot". In all honesty I'd hate to see any of those OSHP folk freed up from the stadium detail to go patrol and write tickets. So my solution would be to lay them off. That would save some bucks.
I see this law enforcement overlap at other big events too, it's all part of "security kabuki theater" put in place in the years following 9/11. The yearly fireworks show held along the Ohio River down here on Labor day weekend comes quickly to mind: Less in person attendance the last few years (now it's not telecast, they did that hoping to get the swarms back down to the shores) but we have LE representation at ALL levels including military: U.S. Coast Guard, they had more boats than ever before and stuck M60's on the bow turrets; then LE of all levels from federal to both states to at least three counties, and whatever all municipal departments on both sides of the river felt like chiming in. For all that there were still some people violently beaten and robbed at evening's end.
And back to sporting events: You should have seen the fooferaw leading up to and during the major league baseball All Star Game! All the performing acts I listed above, plus special appearances by DHS bomb techs and their four legged sniffers, and vehicles set up to detect radioactivity. (As opposed to the FCC, who had people here heavily monitoring radio activity. Secret Service had just a little less presence than if the POTUS was going to show up...which he didn't, and had no plans to.
Wow I feel like I'm reading off the cast at the beginning of a Hee Haw episode.
I just wish my fearless leaders in the Fire/EMS racket at local and state levels had managed to do a better job dealing ourselves into these shows post 9/11, maybe I wouldn't be so GREEN with envy..from missing out on all that GREEN overtime money.
No, honestly, I have no such regrets, the taxpayer side of me doesn't like all this spending, even if a little of it gets thrown my way.