Republican Convention Security Plans Under Way

Sep 2, 2008 3:19 PM

Prior to the beginning of the Republican National Convention, police saw little disruption.

"Things are going as expected. Things are going well," Commander Doug Holtz of the St. Paul Police Department told CNN.

The Republican convention, which has already begun, has been designated a "national special security event," which means the Secret Service is responsible for planning and implementing a security scheme.

But the primary responsibility for street-level security falls to the local police agencies. St. Paul received $50 million in federal grant money to pay for additional security measures.

The St. Paul Police Department estimated it would require $34 million to bring in and pay 3,500 extra officers. The rest of the money is for training and new equipment, the department said.

Holtz, who was at the Joint Information Center set up by the Secret Service to help coordinate the activities of the various law enforcement agencies involved in securing the event, told CNN that things were relatively quiet except for a few disturbances.

Nine individuals were arrested for trying to enter a restricted area and later charged with misdemeanor trespassing, Holtz says, and eight of the nine had already been released by Sunday evening.

A day into the convention, almost 300 people were arrested during protests. Police fired projectiles, pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the crowd demonstrating near the convention site.

St. Paul has been preparing for the Republicans' arrival for more than a year, but there are still questions about whether the cities are prepared to handle the protesters who are expected to flood into the city.

St. Paul officials have planned for about 25,000 protesters, but the protest groups themselves are hoping for double that number.

Protest groups estimated similar numbers for the recent Democratic convention in Denver, but the tens of thousands of protesters never materialized.

Law enforcement officers have said they uncovered evidence of an anarchist conspiracy to riot and disrupt the convention during a series of pre-convention raids.

In the raids, sheriff's deputies for Ramsey County -- which contains the convention host city of St. Paul -- arrested a number of what they described as anarchists. They also found bricks and human waste they say was meant to be thrown at police, slingshots to launch projectiles, tacks meant to puncture tires and Molotov cocktails.

Officials say the group's plan was to sabotage buses and block bus routes.

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