A heavy police presence combined with enhanced security, good weather and mellow music led to a relatively problem-free rodeo weekend.
Local officers took an all-hands-on-deck approach to the festivities, but detachment commander Insp. Warren Dosko said the weekend was largely without incident.
Police made a handful of arrests at both concerts, but there were very few in comparison to previous years where alcohol mixed with bad behaviour to create problems.
Dosko took the Gazette on a tour of the rodeo grounds Friday night to see the action close up, but even with the beer gardens running at full speed there were very few incidents.
Dosko said the rodeo is one of the biggest nights of the year for the local detachment and there are always plenty of officers on hand at the grounds. The key to success starts with good planning well in advance.
“It almost starts after the previous year’s rodeo. There is a little bit of a debriefing on what went wrong and what went right.”
Dosko said the detachment works with the Kinsmen and other groups to make sure big problems are addressed early.
“Six months in advance we really start to meet with them and take the lessons learned and apply them to this year.”
The detachment effectively doubled the watch on both nights this past weekend. One watch was left to patrol the city as usual, while another watch and a few extra officers from neighbouring detachments came in for the rodeo.
The detachment also had plainclothes officers in the concert, extra traffic members on the road and bylaw officers patrolling the paths around St. Albert.
“On a regular night we might have seven or eight people working, but we probably had upwards of 24 or 25 people working.”
Dosko said after the fact the event might have been over policed, but it is hard to know before it gets under way. He said having a significant presence also stops problems before they start.
“We believe that a large high-visibility presence is a significant deterrent and that’s the model that we use to police it.”
He points to the example of impaired driving, which he hopes the detachment can curtail simply be being there. “Our visibility and our presence there leads to less people drinking and driving because they are afraid of being caught.”
Dosko said the event is well managed, but simply having that many people in one place, along with a beer garden creates a recipe that can lead to trouble.
“We want to try and make it as safe an event for people as possible,” he said. “The likelihood of something going wrong is greater there than any other weekend.”
Dosko said each year he has been involved in the event he has seen a steady improvement with less bad behaviour.
“I am seeing a slow evolution toward that type of event.”
He said the improvements are just part of the national process of constantly looking for ways to do better.
“It is the lessons learned from the previous years and looking at ways that we can improve it that really start to add up.”