HOLLISTER
For the 2008 Hollister Motorcycle Rally, the city hired 140 sworn or non-sworn officers from outside and local agencies working a total of 3,559 hours over the three-day event that council members canceled last month, according to figures released today by the Hollister Police Department.
Pay and other expenses such as lodging contributed to the $359,000 total cost of law enforcement at this year’s event – a number increasing through the years and often underlined by rally security critics. The numbers do not include officers for whom the city did not pay or Hollister law enforcement personnel regularly on duty those days, said Capt. Bob Brooks of the HPD. They do include Hollister officers who worked on days off during the rally and received overtime.
Given the figures released today, each of the 140 hired officers worked, on average, about 25.4 hours for the event.
City and police officials have declined to release the data in the past citing concerns it might compromise rally security. They did so today in response to a public records request submitted recently by the Free Lance.
From a comparison standpoint with other rallies surveyed by the Free Lance, Hollister has spent more money for security on its three-day event – attracting an estimated 93,000 visitors – than other major biker rallies bringing in hundreds of thousands of attendees and over more days. Hollister police officials, however, have noted that factors playing into the higher tab here include an inflated cost of living, the state’s mandate that such events use California officers and a larger street gang presence.
Brooks stressed that the figures represent the number of personnel working throughout San Benito County, including California Highway Patrol officers on the roads for the event.
“It’s just a matter of responding to threats as they present themselves,” Brooks said.
The department also released the following data on the four prior rallies before 2008:
– In 2007, the city paid 147 officers who worked 3,652 hours.
– In 2006, for the non-sanctioned event, the city paid 54 officers who worked 1,390 hours. Brooks noted that the state did not charge Hollister that year.
– In 2005, the city paid 149 officers who worked 3,111 hours.
– In 2004, the city paid 128 officers who worked 3,327 hours.
Officials in cities with three of the largest rallies in the country have spoken to the Free Lance and provided total security costs – while declining to release numbers of officers as Hollister previously had done.
The City of Sturgis, which attracts about 700,000 visitors over 10 days, budgets about $300,000 on its annual August rally, said Sturgis Police Chief Jim Bush. Laconia Motorcycle Week each June attracts about 350,000 people over 10 days, while that city spends about $140,000 on law enforcement, said Police Chief Michael Moyer. Daytona Beach, which hosts two rallies bringing a total of around 600,000 people, spent about $170,000 in total this year on security for the events, a figure that declined this year, according to a city hall spokeswoman.
Brooks said there is not a fair cost comparison with other rallies due to cities’ varying circumstances and he contended Hollister’s rally policing philosophies are “pretty much in line with what everybody else is doing.” He also pointed to the high concentration of people in Hollister’s relatively small downtown area as a factor.
“If you had an apple festival here and you had an apple festival in Sturgis, you can’t compare,” he said. “We get outlaw motorcycle gangs that come here that are opposed to each other and we get street gangs that come here that are opposed to each other.”
Look for an expanded version of this story, with reaction, in Tuesday’s Free Lance.
