The city will foot about $500,000 for police, fire and other overtime pay for the upcoming Grand Prix.
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/02/22/grand-prix-wont-fully-pay-its-way-pratt-joins-young-in-opposing-race/
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B’ Spokes: I just wanted to note a major obstacle in getting Baltimore’s Sunday Streets programming going is the amount of money the city charges for over time police while they give the same service free for an event for people that don’t live here, that does not seem right to me. I read about city closing pools and rec centers, certainly indicators that the quality of city life for residents is on the decline yet the vibe from City Hall is let’s focus on tourism, again, this does not seem right.
The other thing I want to mention for our Sunday Streets the City insists that there is a police officer at every little street and that the event organizers pay time and half for someone to pick up the slack the barricades might miss, just in case (you might read that as having to pay top dollar for someone to do (next) nothing.) We need the option of just barricades and signs where appropriate, volunteers with reflect vests where appropriate and finally police officers just where needed. And please let’s start charging the criminals time and half for their use of the police force and work to remove unnecessary financial barriers for wholesome events that benefit the city residents.