Parade might cost city $2,000 in overtime pay

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department expects to have spent several thousand dollars in overtime for the dozens of officers on duty for Saturday’s Aryan Nations parade through downtown.

It was not known Monday if city police will be reimbursed through Homeland Security funds, which has said it will cover the bills for several Montana police agencies patrolling a white supremacist campout over the weekend.

Locally, police were ready with everything from a riot team to bomb-sniffing dogs but wound up making one arrest, Capt. Steve Childers of the Coeur d’Alene Police said. “And that didn’t even have anything to do with the parade. It was someone who had a warrant out for their arrest and was recognized in the crowd,” Childers said.

Other than his estimate of overtime dollars, Childers said the department has not yet toted up all that it spent on security for the parade.

The Aryans drew fewer than three dozen marchers for their first parade in two years, Childers said, and the white supremacists were shadowed along Sherman Avenue by an estimated 150 protesters.

Near St. Regis, Mont., a white supremacist campout was equally uneventful, Mineral County Sheriff’s officials said Monday.

Event organizers told police they were expecting 200 white supremacists, but sheriff’s officials said only 30 showed up. There were no reported arrests.

Sanders County Undersheriff Rube Wrightsman said he turned in a preliminary budget of $10,000 to Homeland Security.

He said Monday, “It’s not going to be nearly that much.”

Childers said Coeur d’Alene police took a new approach this year, allowing protesters only the south sidewalk along Sherman, and keeping most of the police away from the march.

“In the past, we would march about a block ahead of them and we ended up being a bigger spectacle than they were, what with all our gear and everything,” Childers said. “We chose not to do that this year.”

Most of the police were kept at staging areas and Lakeside Avenue, a block north of Sherman, was sealed off for police use so they could reach trouble spots in a hurry and also had a place to hustle the Aryans to in case of a riot, Childers said.

The riot team did rush off to the end of the parade route, at Lakeside and Northwest Boulevard, when the Aryans slowed down and stopped near there to make sure they used up every minute of their one-hour special events permit.

The city police were assisted by Idaho State Police, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department and Spokane police. Federal agents were also on hand, primarily for surveillance.

For tactical reasons, Childers declined to say how many officers were assembled for the parade. He expected overtime costs alone to be about $2,000.

Capt. Mike Frellick of the Montana Highway Patrol said extra troopers were assigned to help out the Mineral and Sanders county sheriff’s departments at the St. Regis white supremacist campout.

“It’s one of those kinds of things where you want to be prepared but you don’t want to overreact and waste taxpayer money given them (Aryans) more credit than they deserve,” Frellick said.