SJPD's Summary of Cinco de Mayo Operations

MEDIA ADVISORY 

As the Cinco de Mayo celebration comes to a close, many events were peaceful and a majority of community members and visitors lawfully enjoyed the cultural celebration that has been a San José tradition for decades. We proudly embrace and understand the significance this celebration holds for residents and visitors, and plan accordingly to ensure everyone can enjoy it safely. As in years past, the Department took preventative measures to ensure the community could celebrate safely. In doing so, SJPD also employed zero tolerance for criminal behavior.

Through the weekend of May 5-7, SJPD monitored Cinco de Mayo festivities, while still responding to regular calls for service. During the course of normal operations, SJPD patrol units observed several misdemeanors, felonies, reckless driving incidents, sideshow activity, and other quality of life crimes that required enforcement action in order to keep the peace.

While proactively patrolling from May 5-7, SJPD statistics included:

Total Calls for Service: 2,642  
Total Arrests:  115
Total Vehicle Impounds: 30
Total Citations Issued: 407
Total Reports Taken: 352
Total Firearms seized: 6
 
Road Closures and Diversions:

Historically, the Police Department has received numerous requests from residents and business owners concerned about unsanctioned gatherings and activities that would occur when people would arrive in San José from outside the city during Cinco de Mayo weekend. In past years, the Police Department took a reactive approach to gridlock traffic, violent crimes, and vandalism by responding to calls for service and taking enforcement action where appropriate. This approach actually resulted in large numbers of arrests and citations, and did little to alleviate the concerns of residents and business owners.

Approximately twenty years ago, we studied the crowd control measures that other cities employed during large scale events of all types. The San José Police Department developed a proactive approach to reducing gridlock and crime that relied on strategic traffic diversions as a key component. These traffic diversions are only employed when traffic gridlock is starting to occur, and/or when crowds start to become large and unruly enough that they present a public safety issue. In the years since this strategy has been utilized, we have seen a reduction in violent crime and gridlock traffic. San José residents can more easily move about and celebrate traditional Cinco de Mayo events, which is the main purpose of our efforts. In no way is our response to Cinco de Mayo intended or designed to inhibit anyone’s ability to celebrate the holiday. It is simply a proactive approach to increase public safety around an event that has historically drawn large crowds from outside the city, many of whom did not celebrate lawfully.

Patrol units were strategically deployed to minimize traffic gridlock, allow emergency vehicles access to roadways, and proactively ensure public safety. City street diversions only occurred when it was deemed necessary to lessen the impact of vehicular traffic in areas already impacted with significant pedestrian and vehicular congestion.

Due to ongoing staffing shortages to the Department, operational plans also included leveraging the use of road closures and other traffic diversions to limit further traffic congestion and to prevent delays in response times to address any criminal activity. Similar closures and diversions have been utilized during other major events that draw large crowds throughout the city. The purpose is to ensure traffic continues to flow and community members can celebrate these events safely.

The Police Department has been employing this proactive approach to Cinco de Mayo traffic and crowd control for close to twenty years. Although the deployment of these measures are not new, the Department recognizes the need to communicate these closures earlier. In the future, we will strive to announce any planned responses to large scale events with enough advanced notice to ensure that the community and our elected officials have adequate notice to prepare accordingly.

The San José Police Department welcomes and embraces cultural celebrations in San José. We strive to keep these events safe for our entire community to participate and enjoy.