Revelers on better behavior in 2015

Riverfest crimes down, police say

Little Rock police last week reported a decrease in citations and arrests at this year's Riverfest.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A graph showing Riverfest arrests and citations.

There were nine criminal incidents on festival grounds that led to 36 misdemeanor charges against 17 people, according to reports released by the Police Department. All the charges were alcohol-related, and most involved underage festival attendees. Charges ranged from obstruction of governmental operations -- 11 underage drinkers reportedly lied to police about their ages -- to fleeing and possession of fraudulent identification.

Two people were charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct after confronting officers who had asked them to leave, the reports state. Police said the two were the only people removed from festival grounds under arrest during the May 22-24 event, which was attended by about 225,000 people.

At last year's Riverfest, attended by 235,000 people, police made 78 arrests on 139 total charges. The majority of those charges involved alcohol and underage festivalgoers, as well.

There were 84 arrests at Riverfest in 2013 and 49 the previous year.

Police spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said she couldn't explain the decrease in arrests and citations this year. The department, as it does each year, increased patrols in the River Market District and dispatched undercover officers to festival grounds.

The department does not disclose how many officers, in uniform or plainclothes, it deploys for public events. But a weekly complaint-statistics report police released Thursday shows that 129 officers had been classified as "on duty" or on "overtime" for the event.

About 70 officers were assigned to Riverfest in 2011, when the event drew a record crowd of 260,000. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained a departmental memorandum that year showing the number of officers.

This year's Riverfest, the 37th, was the second in which police stationed a mobile surveillance tower at Riverfront Park, Davis said. A police helicopter also circled the festival each night.

Though attendance was down, which festival organizers attributed to rainy weather and a new ticket system, Davis said she couldn't say whether the smaller crowds affected criminal activity.

"I don't know if we can attribute that to the attendance level or not. Hopefully, with the fact that knowing that officers would be present, and the camera systems, people could just notice that officers were in the area," she said.

Robberies, vehicle break-ins and battery cases have been reported in recent years in the downtown blocks surrounding the festival. There wasn't a single such incident this year, according to Davis and automated daily police reports the department provides to the media.

The reports list vehicle thefts, robberies and batteries, among other crimes, across the city. A vehicle break-in May 24 at the La Quinta Inn & Suites at 617 S. Broadway, nearly 1 mile from festival grounds, was the only criminal incident reported downtown during Riverfest.

Deanna Korte, executive director of Riverfest, said festival organizers tweak security plans each year but made no major changes this year. In addition to coordinating with Little Rock police, the Pulaski County sheriff's office and the FBI, the festival hires private security guards to work inside the event and in the blocks outside or its entrances.

Korte said she wasn't surprised by the relatively low number of criminal incidents.

"I know how hard we work to ensure public safety. Obviously, it makes me very happy. It shows that we had a great plan in place," she said.

Crime in Little Rock fell to its lowest point in 20 years in 2014, and it has continued falling this year, according to data released by the Police Department.

Metro on 05/31/2015

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