A total of 36 law-enforcement, military and federal agencies will help police next week’s U.S. Open. Security costs for local and state agencies could top $2 million, but the event is expected to generate more than $140 million for the region.
Law-enforcement agencies from around Puget Sound — and as far away as Yakima County — will provide officers to help police next week’s U.S. Open, with host Pierce County picking up the tab.
It’s not a job for everyone. Participating officers “will be expected to stand for multiple hours each day, walk multiple miles each day and may have to run on uneven terrain in all types of weather,” according to Pierce County documents.
The police departments are among 36 local, state, federal and military agencies working jointly to provide round-the-clock enforcement at the first U.S. Open held in the Northwest.
Although the number of officers coming from each jurisdiction has not been set, a total 450 to 500 officers is expected to be assembled, said Sheri Badger, spokeswoman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, the lead agency.
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Security costs for local and state agencies could top $2 million, but Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy has said she expects the event, likely to draw up to 30,000 people a day, to generate more than $140 million in visitor spending in the Puget Sound area.
McCarthy has told the Pierce County Council she expects county government itself to roughly break even on the Open, receiving $4.2 million from the USGA for hosting it, and spending about the same amount on security, construction and other costs.
Law-enforcement officers will supplement the work of an undisclosed number of traffic and security personnel hired by the USGA.
Early this year, Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor solicited the assistance of other law-enforcement agencies to generate a sufficient number of officers.
The city of Seattle, the Port of Seattle and the King County Sheriff’s Office were among 20 agencies with which the Pierce County Council last week approved agreements to provide staffing.
Agreements also were approved with cities including Bellevue, Everett, Federal Way, Mercer Island, and other locations as far away as Union Gap near Yakima.
Under terms of the agreements, Pierce County agrees to cover overtime costs of up to $72 an hour per officer, plus housing and meals for those coming from outside Pierce County.
Thurston County and the Washington State Patrol were among agencies already on board for the event. A WSP spokeswoman said that agency will provide 200 troopers, principally for traffic control, funded by the state.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Capt. Scott Mielcarek, law-enforcement incident commander, said the golf course’s location presents several challenges, including safeguarding a shoreline, a rail line, the golf course itself and the surrounding neighborhood.
“A lot of those challenges are what make Chambers Bay very unique and why I think this is going to turn out to be a well-received U.S. Open,” Mielcarek said.
He said federal agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will have members on the law-enforcement team, working side by side with local officers, rather than adding another layer.
Mielcarek said the U.S. Coast Guard will help police a closed area within 1,000 yards of the shoreline of the golf course, a former sand and gravel quarry south of the Tacoma Narrows.
A group of protesters has indicated it is planning a waterborne demonstration calling attention to the danger of oil trains traveling through populated areas.