Demonstrations cost $500,000, police estimate
STACEY MULICK
The News Tribune
April 01, 2007
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/6442281p-5739934c.html

Costs for the large-scale law enforcement presence at last month?s
12-day anti-war protests at the Port of Tacoma could top $500,000.

The bills are still being tallied, but the rough estimate covers
overtime and compensation time, equipment and food costs for hundreds of
personnel from Tacoma police and other agencies, Tacoma Police Assistant
Chief Bob Sheehan said.

?This was a major event,? he said. ?It was a tremendous undertaking.?

A final bill along with a breakdown of all the costs could be completed
by the end of the week. The city plans to ask the Port of Tacoma and the
military to cover some of the costs.

?That?s a tremendous hit on our budget ? a half million dollars of
unexpected expense,? Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma said.

He said he didn?t know how the city would approach the billing but
expected the military would get the first invoice.

?I think our request is justifiable,? Baarsma said. ?I would expect that
we would be reimbursed. I would be surprised if we weren?t.?

Tacoma police beefed up the law enforcement presence at the Port of
Tacoma during the convoying and storage of Stryker vehicles from March 3
until a ship carrying the military equipment left for Iraq on March 14.

The activity drew protesters to the port on a nightly basis. Activists
belonging to the Tacoma Port Militarization Resistance and other
organizations voiced their objections to the war in Iraq. The police
were on hand to make sure demonstrators followed the rules and to
prevent injury and property damage.

Sheehan said there was an average of 100 to 150 officers on duty at the
Port of Tacoma every 12 hours. The number fluctuated, depending on what
investigators heard about planned demonstrations. During the 12-day
span, law enforcement officers arrested 37 protesters.

The Tacoma Police Department utilized patrol officers, uniformed
detectives, commanders and members of its disorderly response team and
bicycle response team at the port. They were assisted by members of the
Seattle Police Department, Washington State Patrol, the Valley Civil
Disturbance Unit, the Bellevue Police Department, U.S. Coast Guard and
sheriff?s offices of Pierce, King and Thurston counties. Most of the
agencies sent members of their riot squads.

The exact number of Tacoma police personnel involved in the Port of
Tacoma event was still being calculated. Most were working on overtime.

?We don?t have the staffing to pull police off their assignments to
provide security for the Army and the port,? Baarsma said.

Other agencies have tallied up the number of people there:

 ? The King County Sheriff?s Office assisted at the port on three
nights. Sixty-four deputies, 11 sergeants and two captains from the
department?s demonstration management team worked those three nights,
office spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said.

 ? The Washington State Patrol had 238 troopers from its rapid
deployment force teams stationed at the port over the course of eight
nights, agency spokesman Mark Lewis said. Most of the troopers came from
Pierce, Thurston and King counties and worked on overtime after their
regular patrol shifts, Lewis added.

 ? The Pierce County Sheriff?s Department sent members of its mobile
field force to the port on several nights. The deputies were involved in
the negotiated arrests on March 11.

Spokesmen for the three agencies said their involvement in the staffing
of the protests was mutual aid. The agencies will not bill the City of
Tacoma or Tacoma Police Department for the overtime costs of its
deputies and troopers.

?We have a fund for it,? Pierce County sheriff?s spokesman Ed Troyer
said. ?We are not going to bill Tacoma if they are not going to get
reimbursed. If we have an issue like that, they would be there for us.?

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268

stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com <mailto:stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com>

blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime

Staff writer Kris Sherman contributed to this report.
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