As delegates prepare to converge on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week — and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month — thousands of law enforcement officers from dozens of police agencies face a confluence of challenges: securing venues, combating summer street crime and managing the unpredictability of mass protests.
The RNC will run from July 15 to July 18, and the DNC is scheduled from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22. Both conventions are deemed National Special Security Events, where the U.S. Secret Service is the agency overseeing all security operations in the immediate area around the convention halls. But eleventh hour court decisions about protest zones are adding a layer of unpredictability to an already volatile environment.
Milwaukee police will bring in officers from more than 100 outside state and local departments to reinforce its ranks during the RNC. In Chicago, where protesters have promised huge turnouts, some observers are drawing comparisons to the tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention. Officials insist that the past won’t be prologue and they are ready for both conventions.
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said in an interview with NBC News that police can both keep neighborhoods safe and secure the DNC event. “There’s pressure on this department all the time,” Snelling said. “Our job is to call audibles when we see a change in the formations.”
In Milwaukee, protest organizers have accused city officials of slow-rolling the announcement of where demonstrators can protest. Plans for the RNC protests were still being finalized days before the convention.
Early this week, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled against protestors in a court case regarding their access to the areas around the RNC. On Friday, the city and protestors agreed on a route “within sight and sound” of the convention. Plans for protest routes are still developing in Chicago.
Jeff Fleming, the city’s director of communications, denied that the city delayed its release of the protest route. He added that local officials were trying to broker a compromise between the RNC and the demonstrators.
“Mayor Cavalier Johnson has said the protesters want to be on the stage at Fiserv Forum, and the Republicans want the protesters to be on the moon,” Fleming said. “What we’re trying to do is strike a balance that gives people a full opportunity to express First Amendment speech, to exercise their rights, and at the same time conform with the security concerns that exist.”
Legal battle in Milwaukee
Last month, the Coalition to March on the RNC, an umbrella group of 125 left-leaning groups protesting the “racist and reactionary agenda of the Republican Party,” sued the city of Milwaukee. It alleged that the city’s plans for the RNC violated demonstrators' First Amendment rights by limiting their access to protest near the Fiserv Forum, one of the main venues of the convention.
The city and the Secret Service subsequently released a map of the restricted security zones around the convention, and an official parade route for demonstrators starting and ending in a park about half a mile south of the forum.
After federal judge Brett Ludwig rejected the group’s appeal of the city’s plans, Omar Flores, a lead organizer with the Coalition to March on the RNC, told NBC News that the group and the city reached a “handshake agreement” for the route of their July 15 march.
Flores said the coalition will lead a “family friendly” protest that will avoid the hard perimeter protected by the Secret Service and will not cross over the city’s official designated protest zone.
Flores added that the majority of the past protests organized by activists have occured without a permit, but they decided to file for a permit for the convention to insure the up to 5,000 anticipated demonstrators will be allowed to march unimpeded by police. He noted that past protests in Milwaukee have largely been without conflict.
“We’re just looking to host a family friendly protest, like we have from the start,” Flores said. “And there’s really no reason to believe that anything else will happen unless the cops have something else in mind.”
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey B. Norman said in an interview that the department wants to be in “the background” during demonstrations and allow peaceful protests to continue. He encouraged protesters to utilize the city’s pre-planned protest areas.
“We respect the First Amendment rights, we respect the ability to speak your mind,” he said. “But we would not tolerate a particular destruction of property, or violence.”
The ACLU of Wisconsin, which represented the coalition, released a statement Thursday urging law enforcement to respect and protect protesters’ rights during the convention.
“They are responsible for de-escalating tensions, and we hope they take that responsibility seriously,” Ryan Cox, legal director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, said.
Chief Norman noted that Milwaukee also hosted the Democratic National Convention in 2020, which was largely virtual. Flores said many of the coalition members planning to demonstrate at the RNC were involved in protesting the 2020 convention.
Officers in Milwaukee and Chicago must simultaneously do their regular patrols and fight crime. Although department statistics show serious crimes are down overall in both cities though mid July compared with the same period in 2023, there are still concerns about potential spasms of violence that threaten public safety, particularly in Chicago.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, at least 109 people were shot and 19 were killed in 74 shooting incidents in Chicago between July 3 and July 7 — including three mass shootings, authorities said.
“They’re doing two things: making sure your city is safe, number one, and number two, you’ve got an international event on your hands,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit police research and policy organization, said. “You have to prepare for the worst.”
Preparations in Chicago
In Chicago, three groups of pro-Palestinian protesters — all leading members of the Coalition to March on the DNC — sued the city in March after it rejected their applications to march near the United Center where the DNC will be held.
The groups — the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Anti-War Committee, and Students for a Democratic Society at UIC — argue that the city denied their requests “based on unspecified security concerns immediately around the United Center,” according to court documents.
In denying the coalition’s permit requests, the city offered an alternate route more than three miles away from the DNC, in an area that the group described as “tree-lined” and “largely not visible” in court filings.
Chris Williams, the groups’ lawyer, said that they are now in negotiations with the city for a new route, which has yet to be settled in federal court.
The Secret Service has not released the official security perimeter for the DNC, which Snelling, the Chicago superintendent, said is still being finalized. Snelling acknowledged that protesters have a “right to be within sight and sound” of the DNC to exercise “First Amendment rights peacefully and lawfully.”
The coalition is planning to bring in vast numbers of demonstrators to Chicago on Aug. 19, according to Hatem Abudayyeh, a spokesperson from the Coalition to March on the DNC.
“We expect to have tens of thousands of people in the streets from all across the Midwest, and even other parts of the country,” Abudayyeh said. “It’ll be the largest mobilization for Palestinian rights in the history of the city of Chicago.”
Chicago city officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying “the City does not comment on ongoing litigation.” DNC spokesperson Matt Hill said in a statement that Democrats “support the ongoing security coordination at all levels of government to keep our convention safe.”
Another coalition made up of LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights activists sued the city in May — with the help of the ACLU — over a separate denied permit request to protest at the DNC. The group, which is called Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws, formed to march and demand Democrats to take federal action to protect abortion access and defend LGBTQ+ rights.
“Pregnant people are suffering under inhumane abortion bans,” said Anne Rumberger of Bodies Outside Unjust Laws at the time of the suit. “The Democratic Party must take immediate concrete steps to ensure access to abortion and protection of bodily autonomy for all.”
In late June, Bodies Outside Unjust Laws reached an agreement with officials in Chicago, which will permit a short protest march down Michigan Avenue, a main city thoroughfare, on the eve of the DNC.
ACLU senior supervising attorney Rebecca Glenberg applauded the agreement, but expressed concern that the security zones — which prohibit protesters from certain areas around the convention — have yet to be determined.
“The city in all of its planning has not prioritized the right to protest,” said Glenberg.
