{"id":74676,"date":"2020-01-31T17:56:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/police-prepare-for-thousands-at-snowdown-light-parade\/"},"modified":"2020-02-01T00:56:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:56:36","slug":"police-prepare-for-thousands-at-snowdown-light-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/police-prepare-for-thousands-at-snowdown-light-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"Police prepare for thousands at Snowdown Light Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Durango Police Department partnered with incident managers and installed a surveillance system with artificial intelligence to monitor and respond to any emergency that might occur Friday night for the Snowdown Light Parade.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Anything that could go wrong will go wrong, according to Murphy\u2019s Law, and the Durango Police Department spent weeks preparing for the worst at the 42nd annual Snowdown Light Parade, said Chief Bob Brammer.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials partnered this week with the Southwest Incident Management Team<\/a> to supplement safety and emergency management downtown in anticipation of thousands of people lining Main Avenue for Friday\u2019s Light Parade.<\/p>\n

The management team consists of former police officers, firefighters and health care professionals, Brammer said. Southwest Incident Management Team responds statewide to emergencies and events, such as the 416 Fire and Iron Horse Bicycle Race.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything can happen,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could be a lost kid<\/a> up to, who knows \u2013 aliens could come.\u201d<\/p>\n

While extraterrestrial contact is unlikely, Brammer said the team prepared for scenarios including a mass shooting, even though no threat was known. \u201cWe are prepared,\u201d Brammer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety of public, that\u2019s our premier responsibility,\u201d he said. \u201cWe take any opportunity we have to be better prepared and make sure it\u2019s a safe, fun-filled event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado State Patrol Capt. Adrian Driscoll said troopers were assigned to support Durango Police with the parade. The agency also enlisted DUI troopers to supplement everyday drunken driving enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA designated driver is always a good thing,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cWe like people to go out and have fun, but we want people to do it safely. And stay warm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Police Department installed a surveillance camera at Ninth Street and Main Avenue to monitor the crowd remotely in an effort to supplement on-foot officers. The camera is connected to artificial intelligence technology that can track individuals and predict movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be able to have eyes on (the crowd), and we\u2019ll be able to see more,\u201d Brammer said.<\/p>\n

Durango police surveillance equipment is not capable of facial recognition or personal identification, Brammer said, but it could track a missing child or person of interest. If the technology proves useful, DPD may consider expanding its surveillance network downtown, Brammer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to know where these things are,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we put 20 more (cameras) down there, we want people to know where it is \u2013 it\u2019s about crime prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

surveillance system will keep eyes on crowd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1065,28,29,51,1310,1402],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-police","tag-safety-of-citizens","tag-snowdown"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74676"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}