Extraordinary event not declared for CIAA

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The CIAA basketball tournament is the largest annual event in Charlotte, drawing an estimated 13,000 people on the last day of the four-night event, and even more attend events not sanctioned by the CIAA.

This year the city is not using the extraordinary event ordinance that allows police to search bags and arrest people with weapons, licensed or not, and gives police the power to add a surplus of officers.

That may not be the best idea, security expert Walter Kimble said about next week’s events.

"We live in a very dangerous time now," Kimble said.

One bad actor can ruin the event for everyone, and having extra officers with more control can better protect everyone, he said

"You are better off in law enforcement being proactive rather than reactive," he said.

Kimble worries that it may be the first step toward eliminating the extraordinary event ordinance.

Community activist Dwayne Collins said it is best to not to use the ordinance during the basketball tournament with historically black colleges.

He said tensions between police and members of the black community are still raw after the fallout from the fatal Keith Lamont Scott police shooting in September.

Collins said having police with broad authority is not a good thing right now.

"(We) can get together and began putting in measures that will really get rid of the rogue element within Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department," Collins said.

He and Kimble said the ordinance might need to be rewritten with input from the community.

CMPD has to make a recommendation to the city manager to call an extraordinary event, but the department did not make that request for the CIAA, so the manager's office could not make the declaration.

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