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Headline
News from Hells Angels MC Baltimore
| Headline: Cooperative planning kept lawmen prepared |
| Wednesday - 08/02/2006 |
| Referrer: Billings Gazette |
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By RUFFIN PREVOST
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
CODY, Wyo. - Though law enforcement planners had the challenge of a lifetime during last week's Hells Angels World Run, Cody city employees were facing their own set of hurdles in preparing for and handling the influx of bikers and police.
Employees were told their duties last week might differ from what they normally included, said Kelly Jensen, Cody's administrative services director.
"Some of us were sitting here all night filling coolers full of water," she said. "But that's part of what happens."
Finding air conditioners during a 105-degree heat wave was a typical challenge a city worker might have faced during the week, she said. The team effort included city employees from all departments, as well as help from staff at Northwest College in Powell and the Park County Homeland Security office.
"The college food service people were phenomenal," Jensen said. They provided hundreds of meals to law enforcement and city workers in Cody and Powell, four times each day, she said.
Alex Gisoldi, coordinator of the Park County Homeland Security office, assisted with logistics, Jensen said.
At the direction of Gov. Dave Freudenthal, the Wyoming Attorney General's Office made available up to $500,000 of drug forfeiture funds to help pay for extra police and other expenses during the event.
Three helicopters, a Black Hawk and two Kiowas, were paid for by federal and state agencies, according to law enforcement officials.
Officers from around the state and several neighboring states assisted in the effort, which at times resembled a high-stakes chess game between cops and bikers.
Police held strategy meetings each morning and operational briefings each afternoon, with teleconferences that included posts in Red Lodge, Mammoth, Worland and Thermopolis.
In addition to standard radio gear, police used 140 portable communications radios on loan from federal agencies, but bikers purchased digital scanners to monitor their communications, police said.
The move proved helpful, said Cody Police Chief Perry Rockvam.
"As incidents were reported to us and we dispatched officers to respond, (Hells Angels members) were taking care of those things immediately themselves," he said.
When asked if officers took advantage of the situation to engage in broadcasting disinformation over police radios, Park County Sheriff Scott Steward quickly answered with a grin, "No, that would be deceptive!"
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