Listen Live
St Jude banner
CLOSE

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –

As the opening of the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland draws near, officials are unveiling their plan to keep visitors safe.

Once the casino opens to the public on Monday night, there will be a lot more people downtown. Cleveland Police are doing everything they can to make sure the area around Public Square will be a fun – and safe – place to play.

Just about every law enforcement, traffic, transit agency and Horseshoe Casino brass attended an informal session Friday regarding some of the safety measures that were put into place.

Excitement has been building for weeks, but nothing like the past few days. What about the “what ifs?”

  • “What if more people show up than it can handle for the first few days?”
  • “What if there is crowd trouble?”
  • “And what about homeless people on Public Square?”

All of the questions have been addressed, officials tell 19 Action News. Police Commander Patrick Stevens boiled it all down.

“Come downtown, have fun. Clevelanders work hard, they should play hard, ok? But this is the other side of the coin. Leave all the nonsense at home, and you know what I’m talking about. Come down here, have a good time, we will help you have a good time. And our guys are very tolerant, but we won’t tolerate certain types of behavior that put other people in harms way or that preclude them from having a good time,” said Cmdr. Stevens.

On Public Square Friday, there was a lot of sprucing up going on: pressure washing, changing light bulbs in street lamps, making sure security cameras are working, even planting flowers.

Because of the crush of people expected, officials are encouraging everyone to put their “junk in the trunk” – better yet, leave it home. Things like a GPS, computers, cell phones and even change in a car could make you a target for a car break-in.

http://www.19actionnews.com/story/18309871/casino-safety-meeting

Article Courtesy of WOIO 19 Action News