The upcoming 8-day 'Stars and Thunder' festival this summer will clearly require a significant number of security and police personnel to keep order in the park venue, and on surrounding roadways, with crowds of up to 25,000 expected during some evenings.
Last week, Mayor Steve Black answered a question from Councillor Rick Dubeau, during his monthly festival update.
"I'm not only confident that we're going to have security in place, I'm confident that its going to be one of the most secure events the City of Timmins has ever operated," said Black.
A much clearer picture was painted at city hall this week as Timmins Police Service Deputy Chief Des Walsh presented a 'general overview' of policing and security for the festival.
Walsh was joined by TPS Sergeant Mike Fortin during his verbal report.
"Sergeant Fortin is a member of my team that I have set in place for the upcoming festival. That team is comprised of 10 persons of my senior command, and supervisors as well. We actually started planning for this particular event in early December, when it became apparent that this festival was going to be taking place in Timmins this summer," said Walsh.
He said the team had been working diligently for the past three months to come up with a plan to ensure the safety of all festival patrons.
"And that we have sufficient resources to handle any incident that may happen, and also of course provide deterrents for unruly behavior, which by the way we don't anticipate, but we do have to plan for every eventuality."
"I just want to mention that we do have some experience with events of this type. Mind you, the last one was back in 2000, that Miss Twain performed in Timmins at Hollinger Park. At that time, we had about 23,000 in attendance. I was actually on the organizational team for that particular event, along with the current Chief John Gauthier, and we formulated the plan for that particular event, so we did learn some lessons from that and we're going to be applying those to this particular event. We've also reached out to others in our profession who handle events like this on a fairly regular basis, and we've learned a lot from them," said Walsh.
Uniformed security will be provided by Lowell Security of North Bay, who will be operating as 'Sword Security' for the entirety of the event.
Their RFP bid, costing $235,404 + HST, was the middle bid for the contract, which goes against the city's standard policy of accepting the lowest bidder on all RFP tenders. An 'evaluation committee' consisting of Timmins Police Service personnel and purchasing staff made the decision.
The criteria was:
- Pricing
- Previous experience in events of similar size
- References directly related to previous experience
The other bids received were $175,000+HST, and $335,894.43+HST.
The security company will be operating for 13 days, for a total of 6,682 total man hours.
"So they would be working in co-operation underneath you, and you would absolutely be the lead security agent, correct?" asked current Deputy Mayor Councillor Andrew Marks, who was chairing the meeting while Mayor Steve Black was away.
With anticipated crowds of upwards of 25,000 people on some nights of the Stars and Thunder festival, the area around Hollinger Park will be a sea of humanity. Andrew Autio for TimminsToday "Absolutely," replied Walsh, who added that Fortin is the main liaison between the TPS and the security firm.
It will be a unique event according to Walsh, as not only the main concert venue at Hollinger Park will need security, but also the fireworks launch area, and the free Gilles Lake events as well.
Officers will be deployed along Brunette Road for the duration of the festival.
"In order to ensure that traffic moves safely, freely, and that pedestrians can have full access to and from the festival at all times," said Walsh.
The TPS has full confidence in Sword Security.
"They appear to be very professional. They have all the requirements and skills that we would need for our festival," said Fortin.
Councillor Joe Campbell asked Walsh what the costs for the Timmins Police Service would be during 'Stars and Thunder'. Walsh replied that they have two 'scenarios' within their plans. One for high attendance, of between 18,000 and 23,000, and one for 'lesser' (12,000 or less) attendance.
"The total figure for policing and security for the festival will range from $335,000 to $355,000," said Walsh.
He added that standard TPS operations won't be impacted in a negative way, as officers working the festival will be doing it on 'paid duty' which means they are technically off-duty, but have volunteered their time to assist in security and safety for the event.
"Regular policing services for the duration of the festival is not going to be compromised."
Campbell asked what kind of security checks festival goers will be subjected to.
Walsh replied that they consulted others about that very issue. Metal detecting gates and wands were considered.
"We found that in most cases, what we call a 'pat-down' search, and a bag search, is what's most effective. That's what we've decided to employ for this particular event. Those searches will be a condition of entry into the festival, and they will be conducted by security personnel, under the oversight of a police officer. So that if there is an issue with someone who is attempting to bring contraband in, or refuses to submit to a search, then unfortunately they're not going to be allowed entry, and we'll have officers there on standby to ensure that those types of situations are handled appropriately," he said.
"We're quite comfortable with that method. Are we going to get 100 per cent detection? No, probably not. But there is a very huge deterrence factor that's involved in the employment of these measures, and basically at the end of the day that's what we're looking for. If someone gets in with some contraband, whether it be some liquor or whatever, we'll deal with it inside, and they'll just be subject to an offence notice pursuant to the Liquor License Act, and quite possibly ejection," said Walsh.
Walsh said the TPS will be back at council soon to formally propose that Brunette Road become a one-way, southbound thoroughfare for approximately 10 days surrounding the festival.
