City Council - Regular Meeting

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Alright, good afternoon. Skip Holbrook Police Department. The purpose of this briefing today is to update on the events that occurred over the weekend at Finley Park during the Juneteenth celebration. I'm going to give some remarks to address the ongoing investigation post-incident. And then Ms. Wilson is going to give some remarks along with Councilman McDowell and Assistant City Manager Simons. So Saturday, June 20th, the City of Columbia's Juneteenth celebration was underway in Finley Park. And by evening time, it had an estimated crowd of between 7,000 and 8,000 people. It was just a beautiful day, great attendance, festivities throughout the day. Throughout that event, the police department had officers assigned to the event to provide security, monitor crowd activity, and enforce event rules and park policies. Prior to the reported disturbances, officers began receiving reports that individuals were bypassing designated security checkpoints by throwing bags over the perimeter fencing and climbing into the park from the Gadsden Street side near the playground area. Officers responded to that area and spoke with witnesses who reported seeing several males in a white SUV type vehicle throw bags over the fence and then jump the fence to retrieve the bags in the park. This came from a phone call from a citizen and That is something we're still working for to verify the identity of the caller and the validity of the information. Officers arrived at that area very promptly and did not observe that activity, only the reports that came through the radio. Although they did not observe anyone jumping the perimeter fence, They did start seeing juveniles that were in the area with backpacks, which are obviously prohibited. Shortly after that, a child playing near the playground found loose ammunition on the playground. And officers were alerted, and obviously it gave us great concern. Ammunition, obviously, is not something you're carrying in your pocket like loose change. It's intentional and is usually in the company of a weapon. The officers recovered the ammunition from the playground area. And again, this was the same proximity to where the initial reports were that some people had been seen passing security and coming over the fence. As the attendees continued to enter the park, officers observed a growing number of juveniles entering the park. The crowd eventually included several dozen juveniles who began running throughout the park, causing confusion and prompting repeated responses to these perceived disturbances. Some of those calls were determined to be unfounded, while others were actual altercations. At this time, the officers identified several individuals carrying book bags in violation of event policies. During one of the enforcement actions, when an officer engaged with somebody carrying a book bag, they located a book bag that contained approximately five ounces of marijuana. They obviously seized the marijuana. The person was detained and ultimately field booked and released. And the reason that we conducted a field booking is because the disturbances began to pick up pace. And this was timed off so the person was removed from the event and positively identified and field booked. On about the same time, multiple fights broke out in different areas on Finley Park, including near the splash pad area. Officers responded to numerous reports of juveniles fighting and causing disturbances. Witnesses and officers identified several juveniles involved in physical altercations. Some admitted to involvement when questioned by officers. One officer observed a group of juveniles engaged in the fight near the splash pad and immediately intervened. That seems to be one that was very widely distributed that someone had videoed. Officers were forced to divert resources from routine event security and crowd control to response to these offenses. Additional officers were ultimately called from all patrol regions to assist. At the height of the disturbances, we had 30 responding Columbia police officers and six USCPD officers. Given the repeated five entries into the park and recovery of ammunition and the increasing crowd disorder and ongoing public safety and organizers. along with law enforcement, consulted regarding next steps. Officers continuing the event under those circumstances presented a risk to the public safety. The event coordinators were informed of the decision to end the Juneteenth celebration early and began announcing the closure. Following the announcement, the officers conducted orderly evacuations, and I mean it was remarkable. And I cannot say thank you enough to those that were in attendance. The orderly fashion, which everyone undertook when they left at the direction of police officers, greatly aided us into restoring calm and allowing us to do our job and conduct some thorough searches of the park. During the evacuation process, officers continued crowd management operations, and they successfully cleared the park without any reports of any serious injury or additional major incidents. The preliminary investigation has determined that a group of juveniles, so far we've identified 12 to 15 juveniles, are engaged in prohibited conduct, fighting, causing disturbances that disrupted the event attended by thousands of residents and visitors. Evidence recovered during the incident, as I mentioned earlier, specifically is the ammunition and a cell phone that we believe was left behind by one of the participants of the fight. The incident ultimately, as I said, resulted in the closure of the Juneteenth celebration. And that was done in consultation with myself and under the authority granted under the city resolution R-2026-014. And that is the authority on any event resolutions that we can cancel or modify when public safety or public health conditions warrant such action. Obviously, the safety of our residents, our visitors, families, children, and our community partners, event organizers, and our officers was the utmost priority. A few additional things I want to clarify. We have... We have tasked a dozen officers from various different assignments and investigations, intelligence, patrol, community services, our real-time crime center. They're collectively working as a team to review the vast... video surveillance evidence that is at our disposal. They're also looking at open sources from people that have filmed off their cell phones and have shared that either intentionally or unintentionally. We have identified some additional juveniles and we're not obviously naming names because they are juveniles, but I want to clarify a couple of things. One, we did not locate a weapon. As I mentioned earlier, we did locate and seize ammunition. We know the ammunition is synonymous with the weapon. That's why we took so much time post-incident and into the next day to do a thorough search of the Finley Park property to ensure that a weapon had not been discarded and it could fall into the hands of a child that may be in the park later. We arrested the one adult and was filled because I stated three juveniles were detained at the time of the incident. Those juveniles were identified and they were released. We're working on juvenile petitions as we speak. The petitions were not done on Saturday night. Those are in progress. We've also identified three additional juveniles that were involved in the fight and petitions will be forthcoming with those juveniles as well. We continue to work with our officers and our school resource officers to identify those that we think there's more people that we're going to identify that were involved in the fighting and the fray. We so far have one juvenile victim that has come forward, and I think we're actually engaged in an interview with that juvenile and a parent right now. We feel like there's some other juveniles, or excuse me, there's some other victims that we're asking to come forward. We think there are some other victims involved in some of the ancillary fights beyond the splash pad, so we're asking for... continue cooperation and anyone to come forward that was victimized during this incident. Again, this was a wonderful day and started to be a wonderful evening. It was a signature event for Findlay Park. This park has been an overwhelming success. It is something that we are proud of and will remain to be proud of. It is a priority. That this is a park that is safe all the time, and I think we've done a phenomenal job ensuring that that that is exactly the case. This unfortunately this this incident joined. We joined cities across our country that that are dealing with. either threats of teen takeovers or actual teen takeovers, and we can maybe have some more discussion about that at a later time, but it's an unfortunate phenomenon that is being addressed by municipalities across our country, and we're not alone. That's why I said, I'll say again what I said Saturday, this is This has got to be a shared responsibility and the answers that we have to counter something like this and to make sure it doesn't happen again. So thank you.

Thank you, Chief. My role today, City Manager Teresa Wilson, is really to underscore the details provided by Chief Holbrook. when earlier in the day I was visiting the Juneteenth celebration and saw with such joy so many age groups, young, old, teens being honored, I might add, for empowering activities they're involved in as youth doing the right things, my heart was full. And seeing how orderly and organized and fun everyone, the fun everyone was having, I just knew that we were doing the right things by bringing Juneteenth into Findlay Park. And we'll do it again. Because there will be no team takeovers. no disruptive behaviors that are acceptable in this park or any of our parks. The reality is, though, that Finley Park, as it has been revitalized to be and was always intended and what we already initiated, is it is a venue for the very type activities that the South Carolina Juneteenth Festival organizers put together in a commendable way. There's no scenario for disruptive behaviors in this park or any of our parks. That's a deal breaker. There's zero tolerance for it. It's not going to happen. In less than six months, Findlay Park is a nationally recognized park. It takes many parks across this country years to receive that type of recognition. In less than six months, We've done that, and this community deserves it. And so under no scenario will we allow for behaviors that will put that type of recognition and what it brings with it for a community so deserving as Columbia. There's no scenario where that will be accepted or tolerated. Okay, so let's just start right there. As I was being briefed and coming back down to the park by Chief Holbrook, and of course asking lots of questions because I too wanted what I saw earlier in the day and what I was told was happening for the concert to begin, I absolutely wanted it to be able to continue. But there's one thing that he said to me based off what professionals saw in real time was it was non-negotiable for us to cancel and stop the event. Because from a public safety perspective, the last thing we would have wanted is for someone to get hurt. So when he just said that the crowd was orderly and dispersing and our officers, our part staff, did a phenomenal job in helping everyone and the organizers in the event with no injuries. That's what everyone should be focused on and so very thankful for today. It brought to my attention that in the weeks past where there had been these intelligence-driven posts, et cetera, about teen takeover events, and we had instituted temporary measures to try to be consistent, to try to not just full sail, whole scale, lock down the park, but to do it off information and facts. that now we are taking a turn where it's happening in a very orchestrated way, I might add, based off the facts that Chief Holbrook shared, it's happening anyway. And so because of that, we immediately have instituted the unaccompanied minors policy. I've already read it at midnight or whatever time that was, Sunday morning, but I'll just read the first paragraph. Effective date, June 21st, 2026. The safety and well-being of all visitors to Finley Park and City of Columbia Park is our priority. To promote a safe and family-friendly environment, any person 17 years of age or younger must be accompanied by a legal guardian or responsible adult 21 years of age or older. to enter or remain in Finley Park after 5 o'clock seven days per week. The policy shall be in effect seven days per week. Now, this issue of establishing such a policy is not done lightly, but it's also done with confidence that this city, for many years, for many summers, to include this summer, with even a renewed effort, has already programmed ourselves in every kind of way possible to provide alternative positive activities and opportunities for youth and their parents who need that support. In a moment, you'll hear from us. and Manager Henry Simons, and I'll come back up with another list of workforce opportunities. But there's no way, unless you're living under a rock and familiar with Columbia, that you can say that there's not opportunities and activities for our youth in this city. And we're going to take a minute and we're going to list them all, particularly the ones that are pertinent to the age group that we're talking about. Because I believe, as I said the other night, that this unfortunately has focused on a smaller group of youth that are orchestrating the wrong activities and not being guided to do the right thing versus the much larger group of our youth who are doing very positive things in our community. And so we want to begin to still highlight them, continue to these young people. So hopefully, those youth who may have thought that it would be tolerated to come into the park and orchestrate such disruptive behavior, that before they find themselves going down a path of law enforcement and that type of thing, stop, check yourselves, conduct yourselves accordingly, and let's help you on the things that are right around, right in your midst that are so positive to do. And for the parents who need assistance and resources with finding those activities, we're here for that. But first and foremost, we're here for public safety because that's actually our jobs at the City of Columbia. We are here to oversee the police department, oversee Parks and Recreation, have stood up a $25 million investment in this community. So you can read between the lines or you can hear me say it plainly, there is no way that the amount of investment, time, energy, skill sets that went into standing this park up, there's no way it's going to be threatened by foolishness and wrong behaviors. So check it at the door or at Taylor Street or Laurel Street or any of those surrounding streets before you come into this park because that's my job. I would not have gone down the path to ensure that we have such a wonderful investment in our community to just leave it to chance for misbehavior. It's not happening. Okay? So with that, we will talk about some of the resources for parents. certainly the programs and activities for our young people. And, you know, we're no different. Before I do that, these same protocols that we've established of unaccompanied minors policy, curfews, they're happening. We have a list. Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Detroit, Michigan, Orlando, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Virginia Town Center, Massachusetts, North Shore Mall, and several places. We're no different than many municipalities who are all trying to pour in the young people for the positives, but who are also acknowledging we're not going to deal with the negative. As to the positive, Henry, let's talk about some of the programs and activities that we have for our young people.

Thank you so much, City Manager Wilson. Thank you, Chief Holbrook. First and foremost, I totally agree with our city manager's comments. We work very hard and diligent on creating a safe environment for all who come, not only our young people, but all walks of life. And it's our responsibility as a leadership team, as a city, to ensure that that is sustainable. Not only is that sustainable, but we are creating opportunities for our young people to thrive and grow and develop. And so the city of Columbia has always been committed to providing a meaningful, engaging, and enriching opportunities for our young people. And that commitment remains strong as ever today. Not after the incident. We've always been engaged. We've always been providing opportunities for our young people in the community. We believe our teenagers deserve safe spaces, positive activities, and opportunities that help them grow, develop, and succeed. This summer, our Parks and Recreation Department is offering a wide variety of programs designed specifically to engage youth and teens. These opportunities include traditional summer camps, dedicated teen summer camps, golf camps, kayak camps, youth basketball league, special teen focused events such as prime time in the parks where you have midnight basketball where you can have it at those levels and even those that time of night. Our teen summer camp provides opportunities for young people to visit college campuses, explore local attractions, connect with community leaders, exposure to new experiences that inspire success. Sports and outdoor recreation programs promote teamwork, leadership, healthy lifestyles, and personal growth while providing fun and engaging activities throughout the summer. In addition, this is what I believe is very special in terms of the City of Columbia. In addition to recreation, we are helping people for the workforce. Through our partnerships with the Urban League, we currently employ 15 youth just in parks and recreation, 15 youth in our park system providing valuable work experience and job skills. We also partner with Richland School District 1, Richland School District 2, through our high school summer internship program, which currently places students in meaningful internship opportunities, including positions at our Saluda Riverwalk. Together, these programs represent a significant investment in our youth, whether through recreation, leadership development, employment, or mentorship, the city of Columbia remains committed to creating positive pathways and opportunities for our young people to thrive. That's our responsibility. And I want to double down on the fact that this is not something that we started after an incident. This is not post-incident. These are things that we have developed for years. We've gotten better. at providing activities and programs over the years, but we're continuing to get better. Not only that in Parks and Recreation, but our Columbia Police Department, Police Athletic League, PAL, and Youth Engagement Programs, we have that going on from Friday Night Connections to PAL Parent and Community Enrichment Nights, Summer Block Parties, Youth Justice Ambassadors Program, our Teen Glow Party, our Bridge Program. You name it, we're doing it. And I want to say this too in closing, FOR THE SUMMER OF 2026, THE CITY IS HOSTING 103 INTERNS ACROSS MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS AND DIVISIONS, INCLUDING 21 HIGH SCHOOL INTERNS FROM RISKLAND 1 AND RISKLAND 2 SCHOOL DISTRICTS, 34 COLLEGE INTERNS SERVING THROUGHOUT CITY GOVERNMENT, 48 YOUTH PARTICIPANTS WORKING THROUGH THE COLUMBIA URBAN LEAGUE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND CAREER READINESS PROGRAM. WE ARE PUTTING IN THE WORK. We're putting in the work and we're providing opportunities for our young people. That's our focus, that's our responsibility, that's our desire. So our goal is not to say this is something that we're doing after the fact, this is something that we've always done. And we're just reminding our city, we're just reminding our parents and the communities that we're here to assist as much as we can. But it takes a village. It is not only our responsibility as a city, as city leadership, as police, parks and recreation, our city departments, but it's also parents and the community's responsibility to assist. But we just want to remind you all what we're doing and how we're doing it. So thank you so much for your time and attention. I think I'm turning it over to, back to Ms. Wilson. Thank you.

Henry, thank you for that. And I might add that these are paid internships, right? So this is, for these 103 interns, they're getting paid and or a stipend in partnership and collaborations with like the Urban League and Richland One and Richland Two for the high school students. But for the college students, they're getting paid and the high school students. So there's opportunities out here. And to suggest otherwise is just... a false narrative. I do think that there are parents who, if you feel overwhelmed or you genuinely do need to understand better about the resources, and I'm inviting the parents who genuinely need the support as far as understanding how to find these resources to please reach out to me, reach out to any of us here, Chief Holbrook, Deputy Chief Kelly, I mean, we are in the community, ACM Simons. We are here to serve. But it's also our job to strike the correct balance with maintaining a safe, productive atmosphere. And this park is for that. It is for fun, safety. family-friendly atmosphere. And we can't and won't have anything but that occurring in this park. So if the narrative is, well, my young person didn't have anything else to do, they do. And we can help you all figure that out. But it takes a village and it takes parental accountability. and it takes us working together. I know that's very important to our council person who's here with us today, and I know Mayor Rickerman, in his absence, he's out of town, would want us to say that all of council is very supportive of this posture and these initiatives. But, Reverend McDowell, did you want to add anything? He's weighing on his heart, so I have to ask.

What do I say other than what has already been said? Other than to say enough is enough. We've heard teen out all over this nation. It's in Columbia now. And our city manager and members of this council, my colleagues, are totally in support of your decision to make this work in Columbia. It's amazing that this investment, so large and so voluminous, that we have a group of persons operating in a negative, operating in negative possibilities. This is a beautiful place, a beautiful place on Saturday, but we're gonna change that. And I thank you I thank you, Ms. Wilson. I thank you, Chief. Deputy Chief, I thank you all for doing what you do. The bottom line, make this city safe. And you're doing that as ably as we can. Enough is enough. Thank you.

Any questions? I absolutely think it meets the criteria of a team takeover.

Mm-hmm. Is there rumors, prior to this, or has it never happened?

I think we have treated other intelligence as far as the postings, and I can let the law enforcement folks speak to that more specifically. But absolutely, yes, there were definitely threats of teen takeovers happening in Finley Park and maybe some other locations as well prior to, which led us to softly begin to implement what we're now making a permanent decision about as far as unaccompanied minors. When there was credible intelligence suggesting that it would occur in conjunction with some prior events that were to happen in the park, we already were doing the unaccompanied minors policy. I think what, if I can just speak bluntly, I think we have been trying our best to not just lock the part down and come out with a heavy hammered approach, but to try to work with intelligence to suggest that rather than us have this every single day all the time, let's work off the information gathering that law enforcement had privy to them. The difference this time, which is why I think it is orchestrated, is that they did not, there was no intelligence about it, but it's the exact same thing that occurred that had been suggested before would occur. So if that's what we're doing, then we absolutely have to go ahead and put the measures in place to ensure the safety and security for those who were here to have a good time, and were having a good time. Everything had gone perfectly, smoothly, all day. It was not until that 7 o'clock, 7.30 time frame, and it was almost as if it was happening all throughout the park, the dumping of the bags over, the ammunition being found, all of these things. You know, a fight would break off here, and then the teams would run, and then they'd break off in another location, and then they would run to that. We're not doing that in this park. Mm-mm. So, I mean, we can call it whatever we want to call it based on what's been described to me about what teen takeovers are like and other places where it's happened in other cities. I say yes. Thank you. Yeah. It was a practice. It wasn't a policy at that point. It was a practice that our police department, in conjunction with Parks and Recreation and leadership here on site at Findlay, due to the specific threats that had been posted, that they implemented in an effort to thwart any type of actions that were being said would occur. So it was posted during those particular events where that would have been the posture that they were taking. For this particular event. Right. I think we were... being consistent, Derek, with what we had already done and basing it off the intelligence that law enforcement had. And there was no indication that there would have been an issue. Like I said, there was no issue all day. And I'll say, too, maybe two weeks prior to, if that, I know it was May 30th, 31st, the Songbird Music Festival occurred, okay? So I would equate that very similarly to the crowd attendance that was projected, a very large crowd, etc., And we didn't take that approach to implement that then. You know, we didn't want to take that approach. There was no indication then that anything would have happened on an event of that scale, and we wanted to treat the Juneteenth event similarly. There was no indication of any issues leading up to it. There were no issues. Everything was handled very well leading up to it, the planning, all day long, like I said, so no. We were trying to be consistent and still trying to try out that practice as needed. Unfortunately, we're now seeing that it can occur regardless. There was enough law enforcement all day because we hadn't had any issues. And I think, yes, during the planning of the event, I mean, no one plans, you know, for thinking that such disruptive behavior was going to occur. We didn't have any indication of that. I can let the chief or deputy chief or major speak to the numbers of officers that we ultimately had to come on site because of what was occurring. I'm not sure if that's answering your question. Will we? We do. I'll let the chief speak to that.

But we're never going to mimic. We're going to charge where appropriate. We're going to hold everybody accountable. If an adult, a parent, a guardian, if it meets the elements of a crime, then we will charge appropriately. Always have. I guess I'll try to paint the picture in terms of what we are receiving. We received an initial call from a citizen saying that People were throwing book bags over the fence in the Gadsden side of the park. They responded to that. That is not unusual for us to get a notice from a citizen, and we respond. When officers responded there, they did not find that occurring. However, in conjunction with that, they began seeing juveniles with book bags. So the assumption is that those book bags came into this park some way other than through the gates because clear bag policy was in place and that was in full effect. So the assumption was that that information was factual. And then simultaneous to that, there was a report of the ammunition. So again, officers are just connecting dots based on the best information they have at the time to make a decision. Ammunition was found in close proximity to where reports of book bags coming over the fence. And then they see individuals with book bags. We're going to assume that there may be a weapon that somebody's going to introduce or at least have it. at their ready if the intent is to start a fight with somebody. What we don't know at this point is was it opposing groups, was it organic, or was it very intentional? It has the look of it being intentional, that there was obviously some ongoing disturbance that led to the altercations, and those are the things that hopefully we can flesh out as we move conduct interviews with anybody that will cooperate with an interview. And we pick some of these kids up on these juvenile petitions. The person that was charged with the marijuana, the marijuana came off their person. They carried a bag and they were escorted. There was no contraband in the bag that was seized, so the bag was not seized, but obviously the contraband was. They were not, again, this was... This was a very dynamic, fluid, quickly evolving situation. So officers were bouncing from one spot to the next for a fight or the report of a fight. And anybody that was here, And anybody that's seen any of these things play out on TV or on videos, they see that not only do you have the participants in the altercation, but you have people running from location to location, pulling phones out, filming what's going on, and it creates panic. One of the things that was a great concern to me when the watch commander was communicating to me what was going on is that we were going to have a stampede. You know, we had older people, we had elderly people. I mean, this was a mixed crowd. This was our community. This is what our community looks like. And we have a bunch of knuckleheads that show up and wreak this havoc, and it puts everybody at danger. And can you imagine if we would not have taken decisive, appropriate measures, if somebody would have pulled a gun and fired into a crowd of 7,000 or 8,000 people? It could have been disastrous. So, you know, we can what if things all day long. We made decisions, the best decisions we could with the best information we had at the time, and we took appropriate and decisive action, and we'll do it every single day. And I am so fortunate that we have these brave men and women. We have the leadership we have at the police department, but we have our elected officials and a city manager that stands behind us when we make these decisions and we make these tough calls. And it's... It's not like that everywhere, but it's like that here. And I think you've heard our manager. She means business.

I know that with the park moving, there was a conversation I had with the city about how there was a capability for a way to monitor and monitor people in real time. So I'm wondering if during the celebration, there was a representation, and then two, did they not have the ability to monitor all of these other people on the fence or back, or did they not look at that, put it back, and see

We have the ability. I can't speak to the entire time that a ranger was in the ranger station or a police officer. We're commingled in there with police officers. This is no different than a real-time crime center. We have events on a weekly basis at the state house and downtown, and we monitor those. So, yes, there are. was the opportunity and I'm certain that there was some observations of some of these fights. But the beauty of our system is not only can you look at it in real time and if you need to use that to help quarterback what's going on, but it also allows us to retrieve important information. But I will say in a dynamic fluid situation like that, the quarterbacking remotely is It could be helpful, but the officers on the ground, they got their hands full. And they're listening to the radio, they're listening to people yelling at them, trying to help and give them some valuable information. It's chaotic. And that's why we describe these scenes sometimes as chaotic. But what we did see was a measured approach. Officers used good decision making, good restraint. Our citizens were very dialed in to the directions they were getting. from us and they followed them and they exited very orderly. And I think it potentially saved a life or certainly saved some injuries. I can tell you from what's been reviewed today, we think there's 12 to 15 primary aggressors. With that, though, again, we've all seen this. I mean, you have your primary aggressors. Then you have all the people standing by not doing anything but pulling their stupid phones out, videotaping, and just egging it on. So you saw that, too. So you have people directly involved and then people indirectly involved. I think that's not keeping your eye on the ball. Just based on what I just described, I can't make a more vivid description of what we were dealing with. You know, when we make a physical arrest of somebody, it's at least two police officers. It involves, you know, handcuffing them, removing them from the scene, taking them to a vehicle and putting them in a vehicle, having them remain in your custody. Can you imagine if we started doing that while all this pandemonium was going on? You have to manage the scene with... what you're dealing with that's in front of you. And I think they made the appropriate decisions to detain, identify, and release. And when I say release, they removed them from the fray. But it was not a situation where I think a custodial arrest would have benefited us in the heat of the moment. And it certainly would post incident. And there may have been something that could have occurred of a more violent nature that would have absolutely caused us to do that if somebody was found in possession with a weapon or something. But I can't Monday morning quarterback those officers' decisions. They made the decision in the heat of the moment, and it was the right call.

So.

I understand the question. So the juveniles were detained and they were released into the custody of their parents pending juvenile petitions, meaning it's the equivalent of an adult arrest warrant. The cases will be investigated and a petition will be filed with the juvenile solicitor and that juvenile will be taken into custody and dealt with through the juvenile system. That was an adult. Yes, they were. Either a phone call or forwarding the information to our website, reaching out to region commanders, our community officers. There is... We are very fortunate to have just so many followers and supporters that will send stuff like that to us so that we do have good situational awareness. But we always would encourage anybody that has any information, whether it's a flyer or an email, just word of mouth of something of concern that they share that with law enforcement. Well, we intentionally don't say exactly where every cone of coverage is for our cameras. We feel like we have, you know, excellent camera coverage out here we are we are hopeful we will be able to identify somebody that discarded that or dropped it it could have been it could have been it could have been dropped during the the pandemonium that was going along so it may be difficult because of the large crowd to actually see ammunition falling or coming from a bag or being thrown what have you so if I would say there's a decent chance with the video coverage that we have, but it's, you know, video coverage is not a guarantee either. I'm not going to get into the amount, but I will tell you it was 9 millimeters handgun ammunition.

Thank you.

We always review critical incidents. There is nobody more critical of us than ourselves. We will look at that. I can tell you that staffing events and staffing rallies and protests is not something that's new to us. And we take that very seriously and we always act on the best of intelligence. But I sense that our city manager is going to give you some clarity on that too, right?

I just want to add to it, you know, we can't have enough of these gentlemen and women in blue, and so we have, in our ideal world, we want to get to the point where there's always 10 officers that are trained and hired for Findlay Park, okay? That's always been the goal, and we're not quite there yet. There were 10 officers that staffed this event, but that's pulling from, you know, different officers who normally work other places, but the The benefit of hiring officers specific to Findlay is that they're being hired, and there's three that I think it's one on the ground and two in the queue already. They're trained as ambassadors in an urban park setting, so their eye is going to be in a lens towards certain things. Not just doing what their normal policing requires of them, but also interacting and engaging with youth, interacting and engaging with all of our community who will be here at the park. So that's certainly something that we're definitely working towards. Again, I feel like this event was adequately staffed for what we knew it to be. What it became was something different at the very end of the evening, and we're so thankful that we were able to pull in additional resources to make sure that everyone was safe. I do hope that our community also, some of the Y'all are asking all the right questions, the questions that we've seen and been tracking on in the days since this happened. But questioning law enforcement, who are the professionals that are on the ground when this is happening, it's okay to do that. But I'm really hopeful that as a community we continue to get to the place where there's a level of trust in those who have the expertise to make the right decisions at the right moment to keep us safe. And when I heard that, because my job is also ask questions and to make sure that the event is handled accordingly. But when they tell me, I believe them because I trust them that they know what they're doing. And I hope that people trust us as staff also to know that it is important to program and have positive activities and continue to hire youth and all the things that we've been doing. We're going to continue to do that. The other thing to your question, Derek, about staffing is the difference, too, in a venue like this between a paid event and a free event like Juneteenth. So when you have a paid event, We come into it, and that's something that I think is a learning opportunity with this event is that the economics, what we want to keep for free public events, Sometimes we have not treated that like a paid event where we would hire additional, not part rangers, not police officers, but those yellow shirts, the event staff. That's helpful, too, to have more of them. But there's a cost for that. And so we want to always balance the economics of a paid event and the free events as well. But we're going to have to look at that because I think that also is helpful to have more coverage in that way.

Okay.

I would encourage our parents to be aware of what their children are doing. Any other questions? Thank you all so much.