As the 36 officers in Alpha Platoon were stationed in Cedar Village on April 2, they watched as thousands of people came out of the buildings at the end of the men's basketball game, police reports stated.

The noise grew to "extremely loud" levels as more people poured out and surrounded the officers, East Lansing police Lt. Tom Vanderwoude wrote to Chief Louis Muhn in a report dated April 4.

"Glass bottles were being thrown at Squad 1 on Cedar Street," the report said. "Bottles were also smashing in the street on Waters Edge where officers were lined up. I was personally struck in the lower right leg by an object I believed to be a rock."

The report goes on to say that a first announcement to fire tear gas in the Cedar Village area was held off until officers in the Alpha Platoon could move out of the large crowd - but no officers heard the initial radio traffic. The platoon then began moving toward campus, and Vanderwoude asked Muhn for permission to use the munitions. Minutes after being told to "stand by," the command was given to use the chemical munitions.

Similar safety concerns and the large numbers of people prompted the initial approval to use chemical munitions, such as tear gas, during the disturbances of April 2-3, police said.

The follow-up reports to Muhn reveal similar situations across the city - large crowds, described as sometimes throwing glass bottles and sometimes screaming. Some reports stated that after the announcements to disperse, it appeared some crowds did not hear or more people were attracted to "see what would happen."

Eventually, 289 police officers from seven agencies would use 247 tear-gas canisters during a four-hour period to disperse the crowds. Forty-three people were arrested for misdemeanors and minimal damages were reported.

To begin planning for safety concerns during the basketball team's run in the NCAA tournament, East Lansing police and the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety first met Feb. 16, said East Lansing police Lt. Kim Johnson, one of the lead planners for police operations. Representatives from each of the agencies then met once a week to discuss planning, he said.

East Lansing Deputy police Chief Tom Wibert said Wednesday that the police used plans already in place and past experiences, especially those from the 1999 riots, to come up with the police operations plan for 2005.

"When we make a plan, we can't help but consider what happened in the past," he said.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said she knew there would be a police presence in place for the Final Four weekend, but that there is a difference between preparing for something and assuming something bad is going to happen.

"The question of the preparation is important," she said.

Wibert said if the men's basketball team had lost, the police plans would have been dropped for following championship games.

According to an internal e-mail, the police were instructed by March 28 they would be in riot gear for the April 2 game to protect officers, Wibert said.

"One officer who is hit in the head with a bottle and ends up with a closed-head injury is not worth not being in the gear," he said.

To further increase safety, trash bins throughout the city were emptied of combustibles a few days before games, Wibert said.

Fifteen fires were reported by police April 2-3, Wibert said, but many were not attended to by the fire department. Instead, they were monitored by officers on-scene and allowed to burn out or were put out with fire extinguishers.

"No sense sending (East Lansing Fire Department) to a chair in the middle of the street during a riot," East Lansing police Lt. Tom Johnstone said in an e-mail to East Lansing Fire Marshal Bob Pratt dated March 25.

Wibert said in the 1999 riots there were more than 61 fires and the fire department couldn't keep up. So in 2005, it was efficient to just let smaller fires be monitored.

After the flames ceased and the gas dissipated, the East Lansing police and City Council received at least 26 e-mails from the public about the incidents. Six were in support of police actions, and 20 were strongly against them.

"I can say what was done in downtown E.L. by the police was unacceptable and should not be tolerated," astrophysics junior Samantha Suhajda wrote in an e-mail.

In another, microbiology junior Rohan Dhurandhar stated "I, for one, feel comforted as a student and a member of the East Lansing community knowing that our safety is in good hands - yours."

More information about the events of the evening is expected to be released by the East Lansing City Council after a police report is presented at its Tuesday meeting.