Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by kube-system 890 days ago
The reason those requirements exist is because things do happen occasionally and it can get out of hand at large gatherings when it does. And local taxpayers don't like footing the bill for rowdy people from out of town. Something like an NFL stadium can hold the population of a small city, and when you get that many people together, the law of large numbers applies to the probability of something happening. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/a-quietly-esc...
2 comments
some_random 890 days ago
Most of the ways that things can get out of hand can be handled by a normal security team. For huge events like NFL, it makes sense to have cops at the ready for the extremely unlikely event of a terrorist attack. But there are orders of magnitude more events with far fewer people that do not need unaccountable armed security.
link
kube-system 890 days ago
With averages of >10 arrests per ~3 hr event at some of these venues, I'd think it is obvious that someone with arrest powers would need to be there.

Either way, what you are suggesting has been done, and was the standard before many of these requirements were in place. The problems in police staffing that resulted were the reason these requirements originated.

link
some_random 890 days ago
Yeah venues like that should have cops there, but there are a lot of places that are required to have cops but really don't need them.

https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/17/small-business-owne...

link
Althuns 890 days ago
I'll give you that at large events, but I'm talking 1-10k sized events with 25+ sheriffs deputies and city cops sitting in their cars. It was was negotiated with the city to have so many LE officers there as a condition of the permits. Seems more like a form of tax and compliance. They literally do nothing though. Every event I witness obviously drunk people driving out of there right by the cops with their heads in their phones.

It's my anecdote that I'm trying to make the point with; these - supposedly - highly trained folks with very expensive equipment are being called in to do all kinds of work for which that training and equipment are unnecessary. There is an opportunity for other folks with more directed training and equipment to fill these roles in society.

link
kube-system 890 days ago
> I'm talking 1-10k sized events with 25+ sheriffs deputies and city cops sitting in their cars.

That seems pretty out of the ordinary for an event in the US.

link