Police were overwhelmed by the massive crowd gathered on Vancouver’s streets during the June 15 Stanley Cup riot, according to a report released Thursday.
An independent review entitled “The Night the City Became a Stadium” — authored by John Furlong and Douglas Keefe — found that police lost control of the large crowd, many fuelled by alcohol, hours before Game 7 began.
The report also found that too many people were allowed in the temporary fan zones. The main viewing area on West Georgia Street safely contains about 34,000 people, not the 155,000 people that showed up.
The authors suggested the VPD should have better anticipated fans arriving earlier and prepared for potential problems. The city should also have had better public safety planning and practicing for large scale events.
“When the situation started to deteriorate, the (VPD’s) decision to go to riot gear was correct and timely but the transition was slow due to communications problems and location of the riot equipment in the packed street,” the report says, calling for better training and communication between the VPD and RCMP.
The report revealed that public order vans were too far away from the riot’s centre and an RCMP commander didn’t hear the order for riot gear due to a defective VPD radio.
It also found the 446 officers working that night, which rose to 928, were enough. The report outlined 53 recommendations to ensure safe city celebrations in the future.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
About The Reporter
