
By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – While cities across America are boarding up businesses amid election uncertainty, a plan is in place if things ‘turn for the worst,’ according to Bloomington’s Interim Police Chief.
Speaking with WJBC’s Scott Miller, Interim Chief Greg Scott said the department assigned staff to teams to respond in groups quickly should an issue arise.
“We’ve made some plans. We’ve got some things laid up if things turn for the worst. You know people have the legal right to celebrate or protest as they choose to do so, it’s when things turn illegal where we’re going to get concerned, and we have some plans in place that we can help address that if that becomes a possibility. I don’t anticipate it at this point, but it would be naive not to prepare for it.”
Scott said the department is not aware of any current threats but continues to monitor social media for threats.
“I think 2020 is its own animal at this point, with all of the social unrest that we’ve had and the different things that have gone on in the nation. It would just not be wise to not be prepared for something to happen. We hope that it doesn’t. We hope that everybody abides by the law and celebrates or protests whichever case inappropriate to them within the confines of the law.”
Scott said patrol officers would be equipped with helmets and gloves as a precautionary measure.
LISTEN: Speaking with WJBC’s Scott Miller, Bloomington Police Interim Chief Greg Scott said the department is read incase things “turn for the worst.”
“I think it’s an example of where we are in 2020 with civil unrest and the COVID virus and all the things that have happened to our nation this year and around the world; it’s yet another thing that we can chalk-up to 2020.”
Non-scalable fencing was temporarily installed around the White House perimeter on Monday in advance of potential Election Day protests. https://t.co/9JaWry9ZWd pic.twitter.com/WMiZ01VBkQ
— ABC News (@ABC) November 3, 2020
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].