Expanded police powers for events may be the new normal

Reacting to terrorist attacks in Paris, the city declared the recent Sunday’s Carolina Panthers football game an extraordinary event, giving police broader powers to search people around the stadium.

It’s the first time the city declared an extraordinary event for a run-of-the-mill football game. And police leaders said the expanded powers may be the new normal.

Charlotte City Council gave the city manager the authority to declare an extraordinary event in 2012, nine months before the start of the Democratic National Convention. The convention raised concerns about terrorism or violent protests as the president and other national political leaders descended on Charlotte. In following years, huge city events such as the Fourth of July fireworks show and the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in uptown have been declared extraordinary events.

The extraordinary events ordinance gave officers the authority to search people around the stadium and in nearby parking lots popular with tailgaters.

Deputy Chief Jeff Estes, who was once captain over the Central Division, which includes the center city where many of the extraordinary events occurs, said the department weighed the civil liberties issues, but said the city takes “a balanced approach.”

“To think that we’re somehow insulated and nothing’s happened to us before is the proverbial head in the sand approach,” he said. “When you look at variables like world events, with (the Islamic State) striking targets like that, with a massive amount of people in one place – you have to think about how to protect those people.”

Police haven’t said how many extra officers were called in to assist with the Panthers’ game, though Chief Kerr Putney has said 200 to 300 extra officers can be called in during big events.

And Estes said most people probably didn’t notice the extra police activity.

“It’s not intrusive and we use it very little. You generally won’t be stopped if you’re tailgating, enjoying your family,” he said.

“The point that people miss a lot is that officers, we already watch people carefully as a part of our job,” he said. “We have to figure out if people are a friend or foe. In this case, we just have a little more broader power to say, ‘What do you have in the backpack?’”

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Expanded police powers for events may be the new normal."