Local officers, medics to help in DC on Inauguration Day

Local police and fire-and-rescue crews will be on duty at Tuesday’s presidential inauguration, but Prince William area residents should see no change in public safety service here, authorities said.

“We will have adequate staff here, and we’ll call in more as needed,” said Prince William County Police Chief Charlie T. Deane.

A hundred of Deane’s officers and 37 firefighter-medics — including 16 volunteers — from Prince William will work at President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in, as will 20 police officers from Manassas and 16 from Manassas Park.

The local forces, which will help with tasks such as security and traffic control, are being deployed as part of an agreement with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, said Manassas Police Chief John J. Skinner.

Essentially, local personnel are available to help when needed in Washington, Skinner said. Then, in return, Prince William, Manassas or Manassas Park could ask for aid from other jurisdictions.

The unit Manassas will send to Washington makes up just more than 20 percent of the city’s 95-member force, and that’s all Skinner said he feels comfortable deploying.

“We want to make sure we’ve got 80 percent of our resources here,” he said.

The Prince William contingent, 100 of the county’s 564 sworn officers, is composed of police who normally would have been off-duty that day, Deane said.

Officers who normally have special jobs — such as serving in schools — will instead be on the streets, the chief said, and county residents could encounter detectives ordered to come to work in uniform.

Manassas Park will send half of its 32-officer department to the inaugural, but Chief John C. Evans and Capt. Travis Mosher said the city will be safe.

“We’ve planned for that,” Mosher said.

In addition, personal leave has also been restricted or cancelled in the localities to ensure proper staffing levels.

All of the officers from Manassas working the inauguration and some from Prince William and Manassas Park are specially trained to deal with situations involving crowds.

In terms of county fire-and-rescue resources, at least two three-person medic units and four staffed volunteer ambulances will be on hand for the event, which could draw as many as 2 million spectators, said Prince William Emergency Services Manager Patrick Collins.

Though Manassas won’t send firefighters into Washington, a fire engine and crew will be posted at Manassas Regional Airport during daytime hours on Inauguration Day and the day after, Robert Halsall, deputy coordinator of Manassas’ Office of Emergency Management, told City Council on Monday.

The airport has received 50 reservations from people who want to park aircraft there, Halsall said, and a number of planes also will drop off passengers headed to Obama’s big day.

Those passengers could contribute to what Collins and Halsall said will be the biggest local concern: traffic.

For example, cars could back up on Interstate 66 as far as the highway’s intersection with Interstate 81, at the Warren/Shenandoah county line near Strasburg.

If that happens, anxious drivers could bail out into the Prince William area, looking for a place to stay, which they’re not likely to find. Hotels and other lodging has been booked up for weeks.

“Those are real eye-opening types of conversations people are having,” Collins said.

He said he’s also worried that the historic nature of the event could prompt a lot of folks to decide to head to D.C. with no planning.

That might not work out well, Collins said.

With entertainment that includes a performance by Bruce Springsteen, Sunday’s inaugural opening ceremony could be packed, too.

A lot of people might go to that event, Collins said, figuring it will be less of a hassle to attend than the swearing-in.

The inauguration is “really kind of blossoming into a much bigger event over multiple days,” he said.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.