CPD chief responds to May Day 'excess security' complaints

A host of residents took the opportunity during the Crestview city council meeting Monday to question what they described as "excess scrutiny" and "excess security" by the Crestview Police Department and law enforcement in the May Day celebration area this past weekend.

Eight people spoke on the topic during the public comments portion of the council meeting.

One person said he "felt like a hostage" in his own city during May Day.

Another compared May Day to the recent Crestview Relay For Life — an all-night event — and asked why the Relay was allowed to proceed all night while May Day revelry could not

CPD Chief Brian Mitchell stayed after the council meeting for about an hour to address some individual citizens' concerns in the council chambers.

By the end of that hour, one of the eight people who spoke during the meeting told the chief the concerns did not appear as "grave" as some initially thought.

"The one thing that was true is there are good people in the city, but some of the things were not totally, totally explained, and I think once the explanation comes out people will understand what happened," Mitchell said.

"The other thing is, we want people to enjoy themselves during May Day. We want May Day to be great. We had the same crowd (at May Day) as we do for the Christmas parade and we had the same amount of officers at both events. The thing is, this (May Day) is the only event where vehicles are allowed to co-mingle with civilians in the streets. We just want to make sure everyone is safe."

Mitchell clarified that the Crestview Police Department had no involvement in the closing of one establishment on May Day. The timing of that closing was questioned during the council meeting.

One citizen questioned the accuracy of reports of arrests made in connection to the closing of an unlicensed pub in the days leading up to May Day. The CPD said it would the make affadavits of arrest in that case available to the News Bulletin. (Images of those documents are available at right. The images are as big as our system allows. Efforts will be made to make the full-size documents available.)

In other business

An ordinance that would have annexed 30.13 acres along Point Center Road for use as an industrial park failed for lack of a motion during the Crestview city council meeting on Tuesday.

Five citizens spoke against the annexation proposal during a public hearing.

An ordinance that amends city bingo statutes to match state statutes passed 4-1. The vote will allow Crestview Bingo to continue its operations within city limits.