Fake Patty’s Day was still a topic of discussion during Thursday’s Riley County Commission meeting, as Riley County Police Department Director, Brad Schoen had not yet weighed in on the events that occurred.
The holiday was celebrated in Manhattan nearly two weeks ago, but Schoen shared some positive news regarding trends. The official FPD statistics won’t be released until the county law board meeting on Monday. However, Schoen told commissioners many of the numbers were down from previous years.
Calls for service and arrests were two major statistics that dropped from 2014. Schoen accredited his officers for doing a great job patrolling, but he also mentioned there were a few areas that were not monitored as harshly this year.
“Some of those things we didn’t put as much emphasis on. For example, we didn’t emphasis alcohol violation citations as much this year”, Schoen stated. He also stated they did not put a large effort into parking violations, where last year there was an officer on duty for just parking efforts.
An incident at Britt’s Farm on FPD night was brought up during a previous commission meeting, and Schoen decided to comment on the issue again. Schoen reiterated what Police Captain, Josh Kyle had told commissioners about: large crowds, an illegal open saloon and gunshots.
Schoen said the person who signed a contract with Britt’s Farm (not the owner) was issued a citation for running an open saloon.
Schoen indicated he has ideas on how to handle the situation moving forward to ensure these types of issues don’t occur again. He added, “mixing alcohol and firearms is never a good idea” and “this needs to be resolved”.
