Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With summer having finally arrived in Western New York, many residents are looking forward to enjoying a number of festivals and other events that are a staple for the region this time of year.
However, a number of fights and other violent incidents breaking out, mostly amongst teens and other young adults, have put a damper on some events this summer.
Earlier this month, fights among teens became a significant issue at festivals like Kenmore Days and Buffalo's Juneteenth weekend celebration. Kenmore Mayor Patrick Mang is considering canceling the annual festival in the village due to the unruly behavior, fights, and multiple arrests.
Then this past Monday, a pair of incidents took place involving violent acts among teenagers.
First, a double shooting took place at Canalside downtown involving teenagers, resulting in officials putting a temporary pause to events along Buffalo's Waterfront. Buffalo police officials continue to search for the two individuals involved in the shooting.
Then an unauthorized party at Woodlawn Beach was shut down by police after multiple fights broke out, resulting in one arrest.
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With similar issues having been reported at other Western New York summer festivals, this has prompted more discussions among organizers about ending these annual traditions. Other festivals, such as Canal Fest and the Heart of Music festival, are implementing new restrictions and cutting back on days to address safety concerns and manage crowds.
With fights and other more violent incidents becoming a concern at local festivals and other gatherings, what is possible to better police these events to deter any such activity from breaking out?
With more festivals and other summer activities popping up over the last several years, former Buffalo Police Cpt. Jeff Rinaldo, now with the Tarian Group, says it becomes a strain for law enforcement to adequately provide resources for officers to police these events.
"One of the things that really needs to happen is these event organizers, when they're getting permits for these things, really need to submit a comprehensive security plan," said Rinaldo in an interview with WBEN. "You are responsible for your event. You have to ensure that you have enough resources there to deal with not just security or law enforcement matters, but also for first aid and medical, and potential fire, things of that nature. I think that's the first step, really kind of scrutinizing some of these events. Have they had problems in the past? Should they be allowed to continue?"
Rinaldo feels this effort from event organizers, along with local law enforcement and security groups, has to be data driven.
"You have to look at the event in the past, has it been a focal point for any kind of trouble or fights, or rowdy behavior? And then, accordingly, the police department needs to look at those things and then make a decision as to whether or not to allow the event to even occur or then assign appropriate resources to it," Rinaldo explained. "But again, in a lot of these agencies, money is an issue. So these events very well may have to pay for those resources in order to be able to conduct their event."
Former Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says part of the contingency plans for some of these festivals have a number of law enforcement assets already in place, with some of them having a presence amongst the crowd.
"A lot of them do take into account SWAT assets, they are soft targets for terrorism. So you have, typically, a contingency of SWAT members on perimeters and in certain points, in case something were to happen. You're employing technology, cameras and a bunch of different other things. And at times, you're also putting detectives within the crowds, kind of moving around just to make sure that there's nothing going on," said Gramaglia with WBEN. "There's also a lot of pre-planning that goes into that on the intelligence side, looking into social media and other avenues, other mediums to see if there's any talk of anything that could potentially happen, and that includes juveniles. With school in session, you're working with the SROs and school officials to see if there's any chatter on something going on."
Rinaldo adds another key to deterring fights and other violent activity from breaking out at these public gatherings is a zero tolerance policy.
"A strong presence of police officers or security officers making sure they're immediately addressing any issues that are occurring really sets the tone for the event," he said. "If there's pushing, shoving or rowdy behavior, you have to immediately stop it in order to prevent those things from spiraling out of control."
Gramaglia feels sometimes, policing a situation with kids is tough, because a lot of the times, fights are more spontaneous.
"When you have pre-planned events, those fights are going to happen," he said. "I know at Juneteenth, there were fights, and unfortunately, we've dealt with kids fighting a lot. That's why we've worked with parent groups and violence interrupters to help quell those fights when they do happen. It goes into your planning stage of how you can quickly respond, and where your assets are placed. Zoning officers out so they're in different areas, spread apart, but not too far spread apart and not bunching up. That way, they can respond to these things very quickly. Sometimes, spontaneous things happen. You're going to get a group of kids that may appear at a park or at a different place. It's not a pre-planned event, or not a festival, or not an organized event. That's just going to take a response by your district, your patrol officers."
If an event does happen to cross the line, Rinaldo says local police agencies have the ability to close any venue or event down early, especially if it's deemed a risk to public safety.
"We have seen that in the past where some events have closed early due to some incidents that have occurred during the event. But ultimately, the goal is to make sure that you're working collaboratively with your local law enforcement agency, with your security vendor to ensure that you have a plan in place to stop those things from happening before they do."
At what level does an incident cross that line to the point where law enforcement is forced to shut down an event? Gramaglia says it depends on the level of the incident that occurred, and how much time may be left in a particular event.
"If you're within the last hour of an event and it's getting a little crazy or several fights are breaking out, then it's best to talk to the organizers of that particular event and make the determination that it is going to be closed down. That really is a situational call based on a lot of factors, most importantly, including what is the situation that occurred? Is it very serious? Is it a shooting? Is it a very large scale event that has casualties, a lot of injuries, something of that nature?" Gramaglia noted. "Clearly, that's going to be something to immediately shut something down. If you have a couple of spontaneous fights, that's not something that you're really going to close down.
"It's the few ruining something for the many, particularly if it's a paid event, and 98% of the people have paid to be into a particular event, a concert or something. You don't want to spoil that for everybody, because you're just going to create another problem for yourself and all the disgruntled people that can no longer be at that event because a few ruined it. So it's a really situational type of a decision that gets made both with the organizers, but ultimately with the police department, who are overseeing emergency operations."
As a result of the fights that broke out during Buffalo's Juneteenth festivals, Masten District Councilwoman Zeneta Everhart proposed restrictions of unaccompanied teenagers for future festivals in the City of Buffalo. To ensure safer celebrations with less violence, Everhart's plan involves providing a space dedicated to youth programming, as well as allowing unaccompanied teenagers to attend festivals with community organizations.
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While Everhart's proposal is geared toward attempting to deter fights from breaking out among teens, Rinaldo does not see how a proposal such as this can efficiently work.
"It's an open-air event. It's not gated, there's no entry point. How would you possibly ensure that every single person there has a parent or guardian? And then you're, in essence, redirecting law enforcement resources to have to start conducting ID checks and matching parents with children. So I personally don't think that's a very practical application," Rinaldo explained. "It's one thing in an enclosed event or an environment or a mall where it can be enforced, but outdoor events, open-air events, it's just not really feasible to do it."
Though he gives Everhart props for her efforts to try and make festivities like Juneteenth safe for everyone in attendance, Gramaglia also doesn't see how such a policy could realistically work.
"That would work if it was in a closed environment, like Johnny B. Wiley Stadium, for example. Gated, controlled entry points, that way you can actually control who's in there, and if someone gets ejected, you're controlling that they cannot get back inside of the event," Gramaglia said. "It is very difficult, really impossible to control an open-air event. Obviously, a lot of the festivals that we have, and Juneteenth, it's an open-air event. You can walk in from anywhere. So I applaud her for taking a stand on the juvenile issues that are there. It's going to take a lot more discussions, but she opened the door for those discussions."