Palm Beach Authorities Gear Up For Tough Task Of Protecting World Leaders
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WEST PALM BEACH (CBSMiami) -- The barricades are up and Palm Beach County is bracing for a historic summit between the leaders of two of the world's biggest powers.
The two-day summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping that will deal
with trade and other pressing issues is a massive undertaking for law enforcement -- and expensive at $140,000 per day.
With the president at his Mar-a-Lago estate and the Chinese president staying a few miles away at the Eau Palm Beach resort in Manalapan, it's an estimated cost of $140,000 a day to protect them.
"That's huge when you have two people like in the same place," said Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. "You're actually running two security details along with the Secret Service, two motorcades, and getting these people to and from where they need to be."
Protests are expected. The Chinese leader always draws a crowd but the sheriff said they are laying
down the law.
"We are not going to tolerate any civil disobedience, throwing of objects, or any other type of disorderly conduct whatsoever," Sheriff Bradshaw added. "At the first sign of that, it will be dealt with. We will have our mobile jails, one here and one up at the other site. We're just not gonna let things get out of hand. We've seen that in other jurisdictions where people start throwing things, and then it leads into other things. That's just not going to happen here."
The president expects Thursday's meeting to be difficult.
Palm Beach residents expect it to be about as difficult as travel will be in the area on Thursday and
Friday.
