The Quincy Police Department just released the below statement; I also spoke with Steve McQueen of the Quincy Tea Party about yesterday’s incident; numerous sources including McQueen, Jim Hoft, and local press say that the call originated from Secret Service, not local law enforcement who, up until the parade of storm troopers, had no problem with the peaceful protesters. Spin, spin sugar:

News Release

April 29, 2010

The purpose of this news release is to relay factual information regarding the deployment of the ILEAS Region 8 Mobile Field Force Team at the Oakley Lindsay Civic Center during President Obama’s visit on 04-28-10.

First, let me say that the Quincy Police Department, teamed with other area law enforcement including the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and Illinois State Police, worked hand in hand with the United States Secret Service coordinating the security of what I would consider a successful event.  As one could imagine, the security of such an event taxes all agencies involved.  As plans were being made it became clear that it would be prudent to enlist other resources to be adequately prepared for any crowd problems.

Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) is the statewide agency that coordinates mutual aid requests for Illinois law enforcement agencies.  There are crowd control teams, Mobile Field Force Teams (MFFT), which are equipped, trained and coordinated through ILEAS.  These teams are made up of law enforcement officers from a variety of police agencies from within the ILEAS Region where they work.  Members of these teams are trained and equipped to adequately and appropriately respond to any variety of crowd control issues.  Quincy is in Region 6; we are part of a MFFT in this region.  Due to the number of our members who were otherwise engaged during this presidential visit, it was decided to ask for a MFFT from another region.  Members of the MFFT from Region 8 came to Quincy per our request.  Fifteen members of this team came to assist; they are all employed by other law enforcement agencies and were paid for their time by their own agencies.

During President Obama’s address, at approximately 1530 hours, the MFFT was deployed.  A group of individuals positioned themselves on the south side of York Street near 3rd Street.  This was within the area that was to be kept secure at the request of the U. S. Secret Service agents in charge of the site.  Prior to the event only ticketed individuals were to be in this area; during the event it was restricted to the general public completely. Secret Service personnel requested these individuals leave the area and to go back to the north side of York Street.  They did not comply.  Quincy Police Department personnel made the same requests and again they did not comply.  At that time the MFFT was deployed to stand post between the individuals and the site and, if necessary, remove the individuals.  Once the MFFT was in place, the individuals agreed to move.  Once everyone complied and the site was again secure, the MFFT returned to their staging point.  No physical force was used during this deployment.

With the exception of this small glitch, the entire event went very smoothly.  I would like to thank everyone from the law enforcement agencies and other city, county and state departments who assisted with this event.  Thank you.
Robert A. Copley

Chief of Police