To avoid 'chaos,' police adjust Lambeau strategy

• During a typical Green Bay Packers season%2C police will make 85 arrests and eject about 320 fans.
• Average blood-alcohol level of persons arrested at Kenny Chesney-Jason Aldean concert was .182.
• Typical charge is 'unlawful conduct at a public event%2C' a violation that carries an %24880 fine.

A police officer described a scene in his section of the Lambeau Field seats June 20 as "mass chaos."

A man at the Kenny Chesney-Jason Aldean concert June 20 had punched a woman, bloodying her face. Then the woman and and another woman began fighting. Police handcuffed the man, but he began screaming and took a run at an officer. Both ended up on the ground.

RELATED:More than 250 ejected from concert

A breath test would later show that the man was highly intoxicated. His blood-alcohol level of .202 percent was 2¹/₂ times the legal threshold for drunkenness. He and both women were arrested.

"He was thrashing around and trying to tell us he was not resisting," Officer Solomon Ayres wrote in an arrest report. "I ordered him to the ground; however, he would not go ... he was thrashing and kicking."

Such scenes aren't unheard of at Lambeau events — some are virtually inevitable when tens of thousands of people spend hours drinking in the parking lots on a day they don't have to go to work or school. But Green Bay police are stepping up their efforts to reduce the numbers of such incidents.

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The changes range from collecting data on the level of intoxication of problem fans, to changing gear so that officers are more visible yet can be more comfortable, to having a transport van on site to speed the time in which troublemakers are moved from the stadium to the Brown County Jail. They were prompted by lessons learned at events ranging from a Chesney concert in 2011 to recent Green Bay Packers games.

The moves are being made to reduce the chance that the small percentage of people who get out of hand at concerts and Packers games will ruin the experience for the majority who are well-behaved. They're also designed so that officers who need assistance can be more easily located and helped, and lawbreakers can be more quickly removed from the stadium.

"We know we're going to need to do certain things," said Police Capt. Paul Ebel, who is in charge of the officers at Lambeau events. "We want to be sure we can help the fans, but also to be able to help ourselves."

RELATED:Out-of-town media rip Chesney fans

Some of the changes are new, while others have been rolled out in the past year or two. They include:

■ Capturing blood-alcohol levels of people being arrested or ejected, and making the data available to officers through the department. Ebel said that this will help police and the Packers better identify the source of alcohol-related issues — for example, determining whether people are overimbibing before entering the stadium, or are being overserved at the concession stands — and act to resolve them.

Until a season or two ago, Ebel said, officers didn't always capture such data, and if they did, it wasn't always accessible to others in the department.

■ Bringing the jail-transport van to the stadium before events that have been shown to yield high numbers of incidents. These would include concerts such as the Chesney-Aldean show, and games with the Packers' most bitter rivals, the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.

In the past, the van would have to be dispatched from the jail, on the opposite side of the city.

■ Putting officers in bright, reflective clothing so that they're easier for fans and fellow cops to spot. Lack of visibility was a problem at the nighttime Chesney concert in 2011 — it was hard for colleagues to spot an officer who had radioed for assistance — and can be a challenge during night football games.

"We know that these things will be a help to us, say, when the Bears are here on Thanksgiving night this year," Ebel said.

Certain things won't change. Officers at the entrance gates still have the right to refuse entry to fans who are highly intoxicated. The message is clear: drink responsibly.

Contact with rowdy drunks is a way of life for officers working concerts and games. Police made 25 arrests and ejected 250 to 300 people at the June 20 concert. During a typical Packers season, they'll make about 85 arrests and eject about 320 fans, according to a review of figures from the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Arrests typically are for unlawful conduct at a public event, a city ordinance violation that runs the gamut from throwing objects or running onto the field, to smoking. The offense carries an $880 fine, and season-ticket holders can have their tickets revoked. A handful of arrests involve drug or trespassing offenses.

Not surprisingly, alcohol is a common thread. Its overuse frequently leads spectators to be unruly — and sometimes violent. Of the arrestees whose blood-alcohol levels were recorded June 20, the average was 0.18 percent, records obtained via a Wisconsin Open Records Law request show.

Several were far past the level where they would be considered not impaired. A Fond du Lac man who "took a swing at" a sergeant had a blood-alcohol level of 0.169 percent. A Waukesha man who was yelling and swearing at people blew a .234 on a portable breath device. A man who swore at spectators and then struggled with police had a blood-alcohol content of .270 percent.

— dschneid@greenbaypressgazette.com and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider

AT A GLANCE

The Kenny Chesney-Jason Aldean concert in June resulted in 25 arrests and 250 to 300 ejections — apparently a record ejection number for a Lambeau event. A look at what that means in terms of numbers.

• Average blood-alcohol of persons arrested: 0.182 percent (A person is considered legally drunk at 0.08)

• Total potential fines: $30,314

• Largest potential fine for an individual: $1,760

• Average potential fine of those arrested: $1,213

• Average age of persons arrested: 27.88.

— Press-Gazette research