Agencies meet to create report, discuss departments' strategies
The eight police agencies involved in the April 2-3 disturbances will meet at 1:30 p.m. today at the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety to review each agency's involvement that evening, officials said. A report about the disturbances is expected to be released the week of May 2. The meeting is not open to the public because the police will be reviewing operational plans, which are not public information, MSU police Chief Jim Dunlap said. "The purpose is to critique operational plans that were put into place prior to the basketball finals," Dunlap said. He said the meeting will review how each of the agencies handled the situation and how agencies responded. Police estimate that at least 1,500 people crowded the streets of downtown East Lansing and 3,000 gathered in the Cedar Village area after the men's basketball team lost to North Carolina in the Final Four. Forty-three people were arrested that evening - about half were MSU students. East Lansing police have said they used 130 tear-gas canisters, and about 250 officers from all eight agencies were working that evening.