Why was there no plan to prevent public safety crisis during Mexican Independence Day celebrations?
CHICAGO (CBS) -- We are no strangers to traffic and large events in Chicago, but the gridlock created by Mexican Independence Day celebrations over the weekend resulted in not only a traffic concern, but also a public safety concern.
CBS 2's Tara Molina asked city leaders Monday why we weren't prepared and why better plans weren't in place.
To be clear, the issue is not the community wanting to celebrate downtown – and the problems were not their fault. We were asking questions Monday because the lack of preparation led to major public safety concerns and delayed emergency response.
The multi-day celebration of Mexican Independence Day across Chicago ended up overwhelming the city's streets and its first responders. It transitioned from traffic nightmare to a legitimate public safety concern - with long lines of cars blocking first responders and delaying emergency response.
The result was that in some instances, 911 calls went without response.
Karoline Pacheco was beaten and bruised in a road rage incident on the third night of the Mexican Independence Day celebration - after the city chose to implement street closures.
"It hurts a lot," Pacheco said.
She told CBS 2 Sunday she didn't even bother calling 911 because there was no way for anyone to get to her. Many were stuck on the road for hours.
Pacheco called Monday for a better public safety plan and city preparedness.
"There should be announcements," she said. "Mexican Independence Day is every year. You know, don't be, 'Oh, it's so last-minute.' No. Plan this ahead."
But the transition from traffic nightmare to legitimate public safety concern was quick - with long lines of cars blocking first responders and delaying emergency response.
Police scanner traffic from the weekend revealed the delay in police response. There were 911 calls that had no response two, three, four, or even five hours later.
In some incidents, there was no response at all. In one instance, an officer told a dispatcher, "If it doesn't involve injury, code it." This means 911 calls that did not involve injuries were not responded to at all.
But when we asked Police Supt. David Brown what went wrong, he responded with what he says went right.
"What went right is that I think we allowed people to celebrate whenever they wanted to and how ever they wanted to. But at some point, we prioritized public safety," Brown said. "I would have to have made the decision before any celebration started to tell certain communities, 'You can't come downtown.' I think that would've been the wrong thing to do, to be quite honest with you."
Brown did point out an issue with traffic congestion.
"Traffic congestion is always a concern," Brown said. "I just want to highlight it's traffic congestion."
He also conceded that there was a public safety crisis.
"But it was a significant public safety challenge getting from point a to point b for emergency vehicles getting to emergency calls," Brown said. "That's no small thing, so that caused us to shut down access to parts of our downtown."
But Brown also emphasized repeatedly that keeping the celebrations out of the downtown area would not have been appropriate.
"We know it's coming every year, but you can't dictate to communities what they can do to celebrate and where they can go - nor do we want to," Brown said. "And we want to be cognizant of the city's welcoming message. I think it's really important to say the words, 'You're welcome in this city, and you're welcome to celebrate anywhere in this city.'"
CBS 2's Molina reached the Chicago Department of Transportation about what happened this past weekend and what will change moving forward. They deferred to the Chicago Police Department.
"What specifically are you looking for from CDOT?" CDOT said. "Since this is a public safety issue, the information shared at CPD's press conference this morning would be most relevant."
The Mayor's office also deferred to the CPD – and pointed out that we covered Mayor Lori Lightfoot's news conference on Saturday in which she discussed this topic.
Meanwhile, Ald. Brendan Reilly (2nd) was strongly critical of Supt. Brown in a statement he released Monday:
"I don't think anyone who lives or works downtown would consider this weekend a successful one for the Superintendent.
"Despite the fact that I reminded the Superintendent via letter that these caravans typically begin on Thursday of this past weekend, CPD was caught flat-footed and under-resourced because they claimed they had "no intelligence" suggesting a Thursday event.
"By Friday, CPD was expecting large caravans yet, once again, downtown police resources were spread incredibly thin, resulting in dozens of local 911 calls for service being canceled due to lack of officers. Headquarters did not deploy the police resources necessary to successfully manage such a chaotic, large scale event.
"Saturday was a modest improvement because, finally, more police were deployed downtown and, with the help of the Cook County Sheriff and State Police, expressway ramps and exits were closed to stem the flow of caravans pouring into downtown.
"The downtown commanders and their officers worked incredibly hard this entire weekend - long hours and very little sleep - and they should be commended for their efforts.
"My frustration is squarely with Police Headquarters and their continued failure to adequately assess the number of resources needed to manage these kinds of massive scale downtown public safety concerns. The answer is always: more resources, not fewer.
"As for CPD's 'intelligence unit' - had they simply read my weekly newsletter, they'd have known the caravans were coming on Thursday night. That fact is both very concerning and disappointing."
