RALEIGH, North Carolina — The Raleigh Police Department reported 26 arrests and four citations during enhanced Halloween weekend enforcement operations in Glenwood South, the downtown nightlife district where thousands of people in costume filled the streets. The department released the results on Monday, November 2, after a weekend in which Glenwood Avenue was closed to traffic and officers from nine agencies worked the district together.
Source: Raleigh Police Department via Spectacular Magazine
Glenwood South is Raleigh's busiest entertainment district, a strip of bars, restaurants and clubs along Glenwood Avenue in downtown Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. ABC11 reported that thousands of people showed up in the district over Halloween weekend, and the city had announced in advance that a section of Glenwood Avenue would be shut to vehicles for Halloween night so crowds could move on foot.
Source: ABC11 via NewsLocker
What officers say they found
The largest single category in the department's breakdown was affray — fighting in public — with seven charges. Officers reported five assault charges and six charges of carrying a concealed gun, a weapons count that police in nightlife districts treat as the most serious line in the tally because the guns were found among dense, drinking crowds.
The rest of the breakdown was two felony cocaine-possession charges, two charges of resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer, three disorderly-conduct charges and two property-damage charges. The four citations were three for public urination and one alcohol violation. The department's figures total 31 charges and citations.
The Raleigh Police Department did not release the names of anyone arrested and gave no details of individual incidents. Its totals count charges and citations, and some people faced more than one charge, so the 31 figure is larger than the 26 arrests. Every person arrested is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Nine agencies on the street
Raleigh police did not work the weekend alone. The participating agencies were the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the North Carolina State Capitol Police, the Cary Police Department, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Wake County Alcoholic Beverage Control, Wake County EMS, the Raleigh Fire Department and the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center, alongside the Raleigh Police Department itself — a mix of police, state investigators, medics, firefighters and dispatchers built for a crowd weekend.
The Halloween operation also had to hand the district straight over to a second major event: the City of Oaks Marathon on Sunday morning, whose 26.2-mile course ran through downtown, Glenwood South, the NC State University area, Boylan Heights and Crabtree Valley, with Glenwood Avenue closed from Peace Street to Hillsborough Street for the race. City leaders had said they would work with marathon organizers on a safe and smooth transition from Halloween night to the Sunday race.
Why this district gets this much attention
Glenwood South's Halloween crowds arrive after a year in which Raleigh nightlife safety has been a live public argument. ABC11 reported ahead of the weekend that the Wake County sheriff planned a heightened presence after violent teen takeovers in Raleigh a little over three months earlier led to multiple shootings and arrests and sparked an ongoing debate about youth crime and public safety. Against that background, a weekend that produced arrests and gun charges but no reported shooting in the district is the outcome city officials were working for.
For the Triangle's growing South Asian and Punjabi community — families spread across Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville and Apex who use downtown restaurants and send students to NC State — Glenwood South is the best-known nightlife strip in the region, and the police message from the weekend is simple: expect a heavy, multi-agency presence, road closures and weapons enforcement at every big-crowd event there.
What happens next
The people arrested now face their charges in the Wake County courts, where the allegations will be tested; none of the charges has been proven. Raleigh police said the department will continue collaborating with its law enforcement partners to promote public safety throughout Raleigh. The department did not announce additional arrests, and it did not say whether a similar multi-agency operation is scheduled for the next big weekend in the district.