SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There are safety concerns whenever large crowds gather in one place, and the Sacramento Kings playoff mania is no different with more than 20,000 people flooding downtown.
Sacramento police told ABC10 they haven’t seen any major safety concerns or incidents come up yet, but it doesn’t mean they’re letting their guard down. They have a detailed plan in place for these types of events, and it seems to be working well.
"Anytime that we have large amounts of people we are concerned about the safety of everyone, but we do have an incredible amount of planning that goes into these events. We work with all our specialty units; we work with our downtown partners, our community-based organizations,” said Krista Koppinger, with the Sacramento Police Department.
It means bringing in mounted units, bike patrols and officers on foot, along with traffic safety plans to mitigate any impacts to the downtown area.
As for inside the arena with thousands coming in or out, there’s a plan for that too.
"We have cameras that go into what's called our real-time crime center, and then additionally we work with the DOCO staffing. So, what we have is a joint effort between the DOCO staff and our police department to make sure those attending are safe,” said Koppinger.
The real-time crime center helps the officers on the ground in the event something happens. It puts eyes inside and outside the DOCO area.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg says the city is taking steps to prevent any tragedies.
"Whether it's the hiring of the nighttime services manager to make sure that security and safety is coordinated among all the businesses and the city, whether it's increasing our police presence downtown -- we now have regular downtown entertainment teams,” said Steinberg.
Just because all eyes are on downtown, it doesn’t mean those of you watching from home aren’t protected.
"We just want to make sure that the entire city knows that obviously we are going to have additional staffing downtown. But we want to make sure that the communities outside of the downtown area know that we are still there to answer their calls for service,” said Koppinger.
Sacramento police say they are hearing the community’s concerns and are tweaking the plans they have in place to improve safety and their response.
► Get More Kings Coverage: Subscribe to the Locked On Kings podcast and follow on YouTube.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: Sacramento rapper turns 'Light the Beam' into Kings anthem
