During the week of Riverbend 2016, 17 arrests were made, compared with five in 2015, 23 in 2014 and seven in 2013, according to the Chattanooga Police Department.
No incidents involving weapons were reported, nor were any confiscated, despite this being the first year that attendees were allowed to legally carry a handgun, if accompanied by an appropriate permit, into the festival, according to Chattanooga police Sgt. Austin Garrett.
"We checked 26 [permits] throughout the entire week, all from either Tennessee or Georgia," Garrett said. "It was very smooth, no issues at all. I think a majority of people offered and said, 'I have a handgun carry permit and I'd rather go ahead and get checked now.'"
Additionally, there were no arrests made during the Bessie Smith Strut or at Faith and Family Night. There were also no sex offender or drug arrests.
Alcohol was behind the majority of incidents this year with 15 out of the total 17 arrests involving alcohol consumption, and more than half involved underage drinking, according to the Chattanooga Police Department.
While Garrett said he believes that law enforcement succeeds in being a visible deterrent to illegal activity, numbers of arrests vary nightly due to individual people's behavior.
"All of those arrests [for underage drinking] stem from individuals who consumed alcohol prior to coming in the festival, or they smuggled it in, either in a boot, in their clothing, something like that," he said. "This year, [the arrests of] people under 21 we interacted with were more than likely attributed to their conduct they were either being disorderly, in a fight, [or] something to draw attention to themselves."
The festival stayed fairly typical in terms of emergency care, as many calls and treatments were performed due to heat exposure, according to Lt. Tony Sylvester with Hamilton County EMS and special operations.
"This year we didn't have any significant, life-threatening injuries [and] most everything was being dealt with on-site," Sylvester said. "We were slightly higher with our interactions [because] the heat was the primary culprit. We encourage everybody to drink plenty [of water] when they're at the festival, and for those that plan to attend next year, drink plenty before you come, while you're there and after you leave."
Any patients that were transported to local hospitals during the course of the festival were subsequently treated and released, Sylvester said.
"We ended up transporting 18 people off the venue to local hospitals, but we had interaction with more than 80 of the patrons that visited Riverbend throughout the week, which is pretty typical," he said.
While Riverbend did not feature any changes to its security procedures this year, those on duty continued to work as a team to improve the festival experience for everyone, according to Lt. Shaun Shepherd with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.
"Overall, it was an extremely good year, and I think Riverbend [staff and enforcement] has done a really incredible job to make sure that people do the right thing," he said. "Every year is a learning opportunity for us."
Riverbend security planning will take place over the course of the next year, as personnel work to evaluate festival issues and determine what steps they can take to resolve them.
"Our planning goes on year-round, so that's always an evolving process, but we have an overall operational plan to respond to any kind of incident that occurs," Garrett said.
Contact staff writer Kimberly Sebring at 423-757-6322 or at ksebring@timesfreepress.com.