STAMFORD (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — A recent Hootie & The Blowfish concert in Stamford, Connecticut has aroused the ire of the Police Union.
In a grievance filed with the city and police chief, the union asserted that both had failed to adequately assign appropriate staff to cover the event, which drew over 10,000 people putting both officers and the public at risk, the Stamford Advocate reported.
At a police commission meeting on Sept. 11, Officer Michael Merenda, president of the police union claimed that the lack of staff at the concert was a violation of the labor contract that the union has with the city, that more than the thirty assigned officers should have been detailed to cover the event.
The concert, the final show in a series of concerts staged by the Downtown Special Events District in Stamford should, by contract, have made provisions to hire one officer per 250 attendees for a low risk event, Merenda claimed. He asserted that the risk level had been heightened because of the sale of alcohol and a power outage that had affected the downtown area, requiring the concert to rely on a pair of backup generators for electricity.
There seems to be some conflict in the number of concertgoers who made the scene. The ten thousand patron figure comes from the count made by a private detective retained by the police union. Concert organizers put attendance at 6,000.
The police union is seeking back pay for the officers who should have been added to the security staff. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers.
