A New Ordinance for ‘Some’ Social Events in Chester

I’ve been asked if I’ve seen the new ordinance that requires some events to hire three off duty Chester police officers as security guards for any event in Chester that isn’t church sponsored.

I normally don’t see ordinances, but I hope my source was missing some details.

I did attend an event this weekend that had the three uniformed officers. I was told that the sponsor was made aware of this requirement about 10 days before his event through an impromptu conversation with a city official. There apparently wasn’t anything on paper explaining the requirement. He was told to oblige, otherwise his event would not have been permitted to go on. 

Normally, I would wait to comment on this issue until I read the ordinance, if there is one, but since it’s already being enforced, I guess it’s okay to talk about it. 

Last year I helped organzine a small oldies party at the Chester Fine Arts Center and insisted that a licensed security guard was hired, not so much for the crowd, but for the people to feel safe coming to and from their cars. So, I understand the need for security.

My hope is that this alleged city ordinance, and it's security component, is well thought out. 

For example, I hope that it requires hiring security based on the number of attendees. For our party of 30 to 50 people, hiring 3 cops would have been cost prohibitive.

But, if a event has 1000 people, 3 cops may not be enough.

I’m curious how they are defining an event. 

Would the NAACP need to hire 3 cops for their banquet if it were held at the ‘Y’ or the Leake Center? Would I have had to hire cops for my Chester Spotlight anniversary party at Harrah’s?  What about a 5 year old's birthday party held in the Bennett Homes community center?

Hopefully, events are clearly defined regarding who needs security and how many they need, if at all.

Since bars around town are open every night, many of which have dance floors and DJs, I can’t imagine that they’ll be required to hire cops every night even though that's where they're needed most. 

So, to get around the ordinance, maybe folks will start holding their events at Chester bars.

I really hope the city comes up with a reasonable social event ordinance. It would be proper to finalize everything first before springing these rules on unsuspecting event sponsors.

Let us know the rules and I’m sure you’ll get the support you need. Otherwise, you can expect that all social events in the future will be held outside of Chester. Hopefully, that’s not the intent.