SXSW chaos prompts new regulations by APD
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New regulations for South by Southwest will be instituted by the Austin Police Department next year.
Over the years, many free SXSW events have popped up and organizers said most of those don't require official badges or wristbands, but according to Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, some of those free and spontaneous concerts caused problems for public safety.
Monday, Acevedo announced that any venue that enters into a contract to use any off-duty APD officers must develop a security site plan and have it approved with APD's Special Events Unit.
"If we don't approve them, there will be no venue. There will be no event. That's the other lesson that we've learned," he said. "We want to be proactive and not reactive."
Acevedo said they also want to know about spontaneous events in advance so they can be prepared.
"If we're going to use social media, we need to know about those announcements, as a police department, on the front end so when they announce a show or a venue, we want to make sure we have the appropriate resources," Acevedo said.
Beauty Bar was an official SXSW venue this year, but even crowds there created some chaos.
In the below video posted on YouTube from Saturday night, during Death from Above 1979's set, you can hear APD's stun guns going off at least twice as people throw objects at officers and even break down a chain-link fence. No one was injured.
“It's a concert. People got out of hand, police responded within minutes and restored order," Acevedo said.
Another crowd tried breaking through gates at Auditorium Shores on Thursday night, as The Strokes played during the first night of free concerts held by SXSW.
Thousands of people couldn't get in once the concert hit its capacity of 20,000.
Though no one was hurt, incidents like these have taught APD what officers did well, and what can be modified for next year.
Officials said attendance at this year's SXSW jumped about 40 percent from last year.
During the last three days of SXSW, Acevedo said the department made 48 arrests. He compared that to three days during this year's Mardi Gras celebrations, when officers made 75 arrests.