Fayetteville's police keep the peace during Bikes, Blues & BBQ

FAYETTEVILLE --The jail arrest log during Bikes, Blues & BBQ shows far more locals than out-of-towners, according to police and rally organizers.

The vast majority of those are arrested on misdemeanor offenses, such as public intoxication and disorderly conduct in the Dickson Street entertainment district.

Rowdy and violent rallies happen. Bikes and Blues Executive Director Tommy Sisemore, a former Springdale police officer and current Benton County sheriff's deputy, saw one earlier this year in Daytona, Fla. Sisemore wasn't sure he wanted to take the job after the former executive director stepped aside. Daytona displayed the kind of rally he didn't want to run.

"It was borderline out-of-control every night down there," he said. "I mean, by 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock at night, they had naked girls wrestling in the campgrounds as a sanctioned event."

Brawling, scantily clad women might draw a crowd, but it's not the kind of crowd Sisemore and the Bikes, Blues & BBQ board want.

"Everybody in this office understands the responsibility we have to Northwest Arkansas," he said. "We understand that our job is to host a party where we can give back."

The rally has generated $1.3 million for various charities since its inception in 2000, said Joe Giles, who served as executive director from 2011 to 2015. Different charities apply every year, but they're mostly causes for children and families such as the Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club, Child Care Aware of Northwest Arkansas and Children's Safety Center, he said.

Criminal activity during the event is comparable to a Razorback football game, said Sgt. Craig Stout, public information officer for the Fayetteville Police Department.

From 2011 to 2015, officers arrested an average of 28 people each year during the rally in and around the Dickson Street area, according to Fayetteville police statistics. Northwest Arkansas residents accounted for nearly 70 percent of those arrests, the numbers show.

"The people that we deal with are the people that we'd be dealing with on any given year," Stout said. "We would be dealing with these people whether there was a bike rally in town or not."

Certain years saw spikes in the number of arrests. In 2008, police arrested 70 people, again mostly locals and mostly for misdemeanor, alcohol-related offenses, according to the department's statistics.

Police presence has increased with the rally's popularity over the years. Stout, a 22-year veteran Fayetteville officer, watched it grow from about 50 motorcycles going down Dickson Street in 2000 to tens of thousands of engines revving over a four-day period.

"We want to make sure that people are able to come here and enjoy themselves and enjoy all that Northwest Arkansas has to offer, but at the same point we want to make sure that they're safe," he said.

Savannah Chasteen, 26, of Fayetteville, has gone to the rally every year since she was 19 and has always felt safe.

"Of course, there's more people, more alcohol and more violence can happen, but there's also a large amount of security," she said.

Chasteen used to stay out after midnight with her girlfriends during her younger years. Now older and with husbands along, the night now cuts off around midnight.

"You definitely get more comments -- I guess that's a good word to use -- than usual nights out," she said of the event. "But no, I've never worried that somebody was going to take me into a dark alley or anything like that."

Police aren't itching to make arrests during the rally. The crowd that gathers each year usually lends itself to alternative methods, Stout said.

"When it's time to handle business, we've got to handle business," he said. "If we can find somebody a taxi cab and get them a ride home, we'll try to do that. Sometimes we're just left with no other options."

About 20 to 25 uniformed, off-duty police officers maintain order at the Beer Garden and the main event areas during peak hours Friday and Saturday nights. That's in addition to about 15 trained security personnel who check IDs and man the gates, along with about 20 more on-duty Fayetteville police officers who patrol Dickson Street, Sisemore said.

Agencies such as the Washington County Sheriff's Office and police from Farmington, Lincoln, West Fork and other smaller, nearby towns lend a hand. The rally dedicates nearly one-fourth of its budget, about $130,000, to safety and security, Sisemore said.

"The board and staff have always maintained that we will pay whatever we need to make sure that everything we do happens in the best possible way it can," he said.

The city doesn't exhaust its emergency resources just because huge crowds have gathered downtown. Police patrols in other areas stay the same, Stout said.

The same is true for ambulances and fire engines. Becky Stewart, Central EMS chief, said paramedics take a similar approach to the event as they do for football games.

EMS personnel on bicycles and "gators," the all-terrain vehicles with beds in the back, station on Dickson Street with ambulances nearby. Paramedics stay in touch with police to know which streets have closed and which ones to avoid when responding to a call, Stewart said.

"Quite frankly, we don't see a significant increase in call volume except a few more traffic accidents involving motorcycles, as you would expect from a large crowd," she said. "It's a great group of people."

Alderwoman Sarah Marsh has been an outspoken critic of the noise the rally brings every year. Traffic safety concerns Marsh the most, especially considering the state has no helmet law.

Football games bring large crowds too, Marsh said, but an event that goes on for days presents more potential danger.

From 2011 to 2015, Fayetteville police responded to 63 wrecks in the city, none of which resulted in death. The statistics the department provided don't include the ones worked by University of Arkansas police or Arkansas State Police.

Serious or fatal accidents can happen outside the city. Arkansas 72 in Pea Ridge makes for a beautiful ride, but its curvy stretches sneak up on riders, Stout said. Sisemore said he's heard of bad wrecks involving motorcyclists traveling between the rally and Jasper in Newton County.

Giles recalled one accident years ago that involved a motorcyclist who hit a median about 3 a.m. on Razorback Road, killing the passenger.

"Quite frankly, that's something that could've happened on any weekend at any time," he said. "That was not a result of the rally."

The same can't be said for other motorcycle rallies. The Sturgis Rally in South Dakota, the nation's premier such event, endured 141 rally-related traffic deaths between 1994 and 2012, according to the Rapid City Journal. The fact no one died the first day of the rally this year elicited a story from a local television station.

Fayetteville police know what a larger, more rambunctious rally is like. They took a trip to Daytona as well, about 10 years ago, when the popularity of Bikes, Blues & BBQ showed signs of significant growth, Stout said.

Daytona police also came to Fayetteville about that time and remarked on all the children and families moseying about, Stout said. It was a far cry from Daytona's mayhem.

"We don't have that here," he said. "We do usually put a stop very quickly to any type of foolishness like that."

NW News on 09/18/2016