BRONZEVILLE —New Year's Eve should be celebrated with your car off the streets and your gun in the safe, Chicago Police are saying ahead of the night's revelry.
While talking to press about Downtown police safety measures for New Year's Eve, including the first ever Chi-Town Rising event, Deputy Chief Steve Georgas said police will also be out and about in the city's neighborhoods looking for lawbreakers.
Though there will be a heavy police presence at the Downtown events, the department will not pull officers from their neighborhood beats, and in fact will be adding patrols to some neighborhoods for New Year's Eve, said Georgas, the department's head of the special functions division.
That means there will be extra eyes making sure parties and partiers don't pose a threat to public safety.
"Those engaged in illegal activity, including celebratory gunfire ... will be prosecuted," Georgas said at police headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave.
Police will not conduct their typical DUI checks, where police set up on a busy street and check passing cars for drunken drivers. Instead, Georgas said police will conduct "saturation-based patrols" so officers can be in many spaces looking for drunk drivers, not just in a select few.
Georgas urged partiers to take advantage of the CTA's penny rides starting Thursday at 10 a.m. and lasting until 4 a.m. Friday.
As for Chi-Town Rising, Georgas said there is no credible safety threat against the event or any others in the city.
Still, Georgas said a heavy police presence will monitor the event, and he asked those who are out tonight to call police to report any suspicious activity.
"We will have a large presence at the Chi-Town Rising event, Navy Pier and the entertainment districts," he said.
Since it's Chi-Town Rising's first year, Georgas said there is some uncertainty as to what police can expect in terms of crowd numbers and other factors. He said there are contingency plans if the department's New Year's Eve plan needs any tweaking.
His best guess is that the event will draw about 7,000 to 10,000 people. Organizers in September said the event could attract up to 100,000 people, though the number likely went down when it was revealed the "free event" would actually cost people more than $100 to access the best spots.
"You don't know how many people will be down," Georgas said. "We worry most about what we don't know or who we don't know."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
