Traverse City Record-Eagle

2011 Cherry Festival

July 12, 2011

Festival relatively calm for police

No major violent crimes this year

BY ALEX PIAZZA apiazza@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Big crowds, hot temperatures and more police.

That sums up the 2011 National Cherry Festival, a weeklong event that attracted thousands of tourists to Traverse City. Hot temperatures are common in July, but local authorities said they anticipated more crime during the festival.

They were wrong.

"It was really a calm festival," city police Capt. Steve Morgan said. "I would say the past festivals have been more busy for us as far as that type of thing goes. We didn't have any major violent incidents this year."

Traverse City police fielded about 1,400 complaints, most of which were alcohol-related, from July 1 to July 10, Morgan said. About 100 of them involved traffic complaints, while minor in possession, assault and public intoxication issues also kept city police busy.

Dozens of reserve officers teamed up with city police to patrol crowds at West End Beach, a hot spot during the festival. Police issued about five tickets on July 5 to boaters who violated the city noise ordinance.

"That had an immediate impact," said Morgan, who added that most boaters kept their music down throughout the rest of the week.

Patrol vehicles parked outside the 100 block of Union Street to monitor activity outside a strip of bars. Officers also waited outside the beer tent at the Open Space to prevent any drunken fights.

Authorities believe the added police presence helped keep crime numbers down.

"What we've done is looked at the past festivals and the areas where we've had problems," Morgan said. "Then, we've tried to boost our presence there."

Parking enforcement officials also were busy during the festival as they handed out 221 tickets, said Rob Bacigalupi, deputy director of the city's Downtown Development Authority.

"They are, by default, lenient because we've got so many things going on," Bacigalupi said. "There's just so many cars. They're so busy with all that other stuff that they write less tickets and are only focusing on the very urgent matters."

Grand Traverse sheriff's deputies fielded 175 complaints last weekend, but a majority of them were outside the festival grounds.

"It's from your assaults, to your suspicious, to your assists," sheriff's Lt. Chris Clark said.

Officials have yet to determine how many people attended the festival, but Morgan believes smaller crowds also made for less crime.

"We had sizable crowds, but nothing like one night where you could say, 'That was a ton of people,'" Morgan said. "There were good crowds, but there weren't massive ones like in years past."

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Special to the Record-Eagle/Susan Melton
A National Cherry Festival goer hits new heights at the Open Space.

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