Oct 22, 2007 Officer Samuel Alford - Supporting the Marathon through Tac Ops By Doug Kurtis

Samuel Alford from Detroit’s Tactical Operations has worked on the Free Press Flagstar Marathon for the last six years. This one will be his last since he plans to retire next year.
Officer Alford has developed a love for the event and puts in a request each year to be its project leader. People that support and organize the marathon make him want to take on the assignment. He looks forward to it.

Tac Ops works on other running events throughout the year. What makes the marathon unique in comparison is the magnitude of people and organizations that help coordinate the event and the number of participants. Also, the marathon distance means that there is a lot of area to cover, redirect traffic and secure as a safe route for the runners.

He sees the event as something very positive for the city. It helps the hotel and restaurants in town as well. “Participants that don’t know much about the city experience it while they are running. Sometimes they will see something they’ve never seen before and will come back later. Marathon runners are looking at 26 miles of Detroit and Windsor. The marathon will only get better as areas like Riverwalk become available to use as part of the course.”

It takes a lot of Police power to put on Detroit’s marathon. Over 450 officers, including commanders, lieutenants and sergeants play a role in creating a safe course. They come from every district and bureau of Detroit.

“Shutting down a course is a tough assignment. On a Sunday many people want to get to Church and they are use to going a certain way. Asking anyone take a different route or delay their travel more than ten minutes causes some upset. Complaints are bound to happen but Tac Ops works to improve marathon traffic flow every year. It’s almost impossible to make everyone happy over 26 miles.”

Recognizing Church concerns has improved over the years. Tac Ops and race organizers work in advance, providing information for race day that will make travel to Church parking a lot easier. As the city becomes more aware of the event from the newspaper and television, people remember to plan for it. Having the same date every year is also helpful in planning other events around the marathon.

Marathon organizers create a course but Tac Ops also plays a role in its design. “Once a proposal is in place we drive the route and see what’s feasible. From there we determine the amount of personnel required and seek approval or take another approach. Requests are also made for things such as barricades and no parking signs.”

Each year Tac Ops creates a marathon book to help brief executive officers that are working race day on each officer’s assignment. Watching roll call on race morning is an amazing site. Officers are divided into sections, names and posts are called out as officers are briefed on last minute details. Roll call is an efficient process because it needs to be complete within thirty minutes so officers can be dispersed for the race start.

The course is constantly monitored during the race. Six to seven hours is a long time for an officer to be at their post. They can’t just leave, so other officers fill in while they take a break.
Setting a six and a half hour time limit is helpful to everyone such as volunteers working the event but Alford also thinks that it encourages runners to do their best to complete the race on time. Bad weather conditions can also make it tough for people marshaling the course to stay at their position.

Detroit’s course compares a lot to New York City’s marathon in terms of its complexity. It takes a lot to manage it. On the positive side it shows off some of the city’s greatest assets.