Hi Seal Beach!
Now that school is out summer is in full swing in Seal Beach! Summer is always a busy time for us. As most of you know, our population quadruples in the summertime with the vast number of both tourists and those coming to spend the day in Old Town and on the beach. This generally translates to more citizen needs, greater calls for service, an influx of 911 calls, more arrests, more traffic collisions, etc. Weekend nights is an especially busy shift and was always my favorite when I worked patrol.
Another reason that summer is so busy for us is all the special events that happen during the warmer months. Part of the reason that Seal Beach is so special to many of us is the fact that we have such a fun and engaged community that shows up in great numbers to these events. I can tell you from personal experience that not every community is as engaged and active as we are in Seal Beach.
As fun as summertime special events are, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes at the Police Department and City Hall to ensure that these events are safe. Unfortunately, the first thing that often comes to mind is the long list of mass shootings that have occurred in recent years.
Here are just a few active shooter incidents that have occurred at special events or concert venues in the United States:
• June 5, 2022 – Chattanooga nightclub shooting
• May 30, 2021 – Hialeah concert shooting
• August 9, 2020 – Washington D.C. block party shooting
• October 31, 2019 – Orinda block party shooting
• July 28, 2019 – Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting
• August 26, 2018 – Jacksonville video game competition shooting
• June 17, 2018 – Trenton Art All Night Festival shooting
• October 1, 2017 – Las Vegas Route 91 Musical Festival shooting
• July 1, 2017 – Little Rock nightclub shooting
• March 26, 2017 – Cincinnati nightclub shooting
• June 12, 2016 – Pulse Nightclub shooting
Here are just a few active shooter incidents that have occurred at outdoor or open space areas:
• June 4, 2022- 2022 Philadelphia South Street Shooting
• May 19, 2022 – Chicago Magnificent Mile shooting
• April 12, 2022 – 2022 New York City Subway attack
• April 3, 2022 – Downtown Sacramento Shooting
• February 19, 2022 – Normandale Park Justice Protest shooting
• May 9, 2021 – Colorado Springs shooting
• November 3, 2020 – Henderson apartment complex shooting
• September 19, 2020 – Rochester party shooting
• December 6, 2019 – Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting
• October 14, 2019 – 2019 Río Piedras shooting
• August 31, 2019 – Midland–Odessa Interstate 20 shooting
• August 4, 2019 – Dayton Ohio shooting
• April 3, 2018 – YouTube Headquarters outdoor patio shooting
• November 13, 2017 – Rancho Tehama Reserve shootings
• June 14, 2017 – Congressional Baseball shooting
• January 6, 2017 – Fort Lauderdale airport shooting
• March 9, 2016 – Wilkinsburg shooting
Those who are willing to commit mass violence seek out soft, easy targets like concerts and outdoor venues. The FBI’s 2021 annual report on active shooter incidents showed that besides shooting at businesses or other commerce locations, the most common place for an active shooter incident to occur is at an outside, open space.
With the deadliest shooting in the United States occurred at the 2017 Las Vegas Route 91 outdoor music festival.
This was not an easy article for me to write. I much prefer when the community asks me about traffic laws or parking regulations. However, I sadly felt the need to explain why we take security at special events so seriously. In no way would anyone at the Seal Beach Police Department advocate for canceling or limiting the wonderful special events in town. Again, we love our special events, but it is our job to make sure they are safe so that the community can have fun and not worry about violence. I do not want to be an alarmist, but I have heard this too many times: “This is Seal Beach, it is safe, it will never happen here.” Lest we forget the deadliest shooting in Orange County history occurred in our sleepy little beach town …
Mass shootings and violence aside, there are also a host of other issues we worry about and plan for at each of our special events. At concerts, people like to drink alcohol. However, when people drink alcohol at concerts, we can almost guarantee that there will be verbal arguments, or worse a physical altercation. While the vast majority of people are responsible consumers of alcohol, there are those that either drink too much, or will make poor decisions while inebriated. Sadly, we arrest a lot of drunk drivers leaving these special events. Furthermore, whenever we respond to calls for service involving fights, we always want to have more police officers on scene than those who are fighting. Most police departments, regardless of size (including the SBPD), can quickly be outnumbered at a large-scale special event.
As we emerge from the COVID lockdowns of the last couple of summers we anticipate special events to be more popular than they were pre-pandemic. Also consider underage drinking, drinking in public, the ability for us to respond to with the Fire Department and Marine Safety Department for medical aid calls, overcrowding, ingress and egress access, traffic and parking concerns, fireworks, drug use, potential missing children, and a whole host of other issues that we take into consideration when determining how many officers we need to staff each special event. Many of the special events in town are an “all hands” day where everyone from the Chief of Police to the part-time Police Aides and volunteers are working the entirety of the affair.
So why did I feel the need to write this week’s article? There have been rumors the City of Seal Beach and even the Seal Beach Police Department have been recommending the cancellation of a few special events. Because of this, I can tell you unequivocally, neither the City of Seal Beach, nor the Seal Beach Police Department, denied, or in any way suggested cancelling any special event.
Rather, quite the contrary, as for the last several years, representatives from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), Seal Beach PD, Marine Safety Department, City of Seal Beach Community Development, Parks and Recreation, and Public Works, meet annually with several organizers of a number of special events to help plan for safe and fun events. We do this with every special event organizer, as this is standard practice across all municipalities.
The fact of the matter is that it no matter what the special event is, it costs money to ensure the safety of special event attendees. Because of this, we always try to balance the cost of putting on special events and the sales of food and alcohol versus the cost of public safety personnel to staff the event.
Anyone who has organized a special event before can tell you that public safety is not inexpensive, but it is necessary for the safety of all those involved.
Knowing this, we use our collective training, experience, expertise, and partnerships, to determine what public safety needs for all special events will be.
In closing, we know it is our responsibility to keep Seal Beach safe and that is exactly what we will do this summer.
Keep your questions coming Seal Beach! Email us at askacop@sealbeachca.gov today.
