Police kept tight rein on crowd of 300,000

Keith Paul and Jace Radke

Monday, Jan. 3, 2000 | 10 a.m.

Depending on where they were stationed, Metro Police and emergency personnel on New Year's Eve either had a quiet night or a fairly busy one.

Police stationed south of Paris Las Vegas down to Mandalay Bay on the extreme south end of the Strip were spending more time taking and posing for pictures than making arrests.

But in the blocks surrounding the intersection of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, police wore riot helmets and were dealing with a rowdy crowd in front of O'Sheas casino and the death of a man in front of the Paris.

Todd Surmon, 26, of Menlo Park, Calif., died seconds before midnight after climbing a light pole in front of the Paris and then trying to walk across the outstretched arm of the pole over the Strip. Witnesses say the man tried to grab for an electrical line as he fell and hit his head on the ground. He died instantly, police said.

Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said Surmon died of "electrocution and trauma from the fall."

Police estimated that about 100 people were taken into custody and processed out of the crowd in front of O'Sheas and Caesars Palace.

There was a steady stream of arrests starting about 11 p.m. It seemed one or two people were taken into custody every few minutes.

Once the officers pulled the offender out of the crowd, most often for having a glass container, throwing something, fighting or exposing themselves, the reveler would be taken east down the alley between O'Sheas and the Flamingo Hilton to a processing area.

Those charged were sat down in a row of chairs and were taken one by one before officers, who filed preliminary paperwork and confiscated personal belongings. Then, for many, it was time to be loaded onto a state Department of Corrections bus and whisked to Juvenile Hall at Pecos and Bonanza roads to finish being processed.

Just after 9 p.m. police rolled out two flatbed trailers onto the Strip between O'Sheas and the Flamingo, effectively stopping pedestrian traffic on northbound lanes of Las Vegas Boulevard and forcing celebrants to go back to Flamingo or Spring Mountain roads and make their way to the southbound side of the street.

The flatbeds were a new idea this year to control the rowdiness that is often seen in the intersection outside of O'Sheas.

"Last year the intersection was filled with people and there was no way for the officers to get into the crowd effectively," said Lt. Gary Schofield, who was in command of the area in front of O'Sheas. "This way we have a place to get into the crowd and an area clear to take people out of the crowds."

Another benefit of the trucks is everyone can see the officers standing on top.

"The problem we have is the crowd mentality. People go out and do things that they ordinarily wouldn't do," Schofield said. "We wanted to have a strong police presence here to help deter some of that crowd mentality."

Metro's mounted patrol also stood by in case they were needed to move the crowd.

There were many arrests -- mostly young men fueled by alcohol -- for disorderly conduct. But instead of seeing a situation such as last year when numerous fights broke out and countless people climbed on light poles, this year police reported only one fight and one guy climbing up on a light pole in front of O'Sheas.

"People don't climb poles other nights of the year. I mean no person would say to themselves, 'I want to dive off the top of a pole tonight,' " Schofield said.

But the flatbed trucks closing down pedestrian traffic on one side of the Strip caused another problem. People pinned in the crowd with no way to turn around at the bottleneck badgered police to let them through -- to no avail.

Rudi Tanoko, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., was stuck at the south corner of O'Sheas against a barricade with six friends for much of the night.

"We've been stuck here for three hours," Tanoko said. "It's kind of put a damper on our party. At this point all we want to do is get down to our room at the MGM and go to sleep."

The police did allow families with small children to escape from the mass of people stuck in front of O'Sheas.

After the New Year arrived, some in the crowd began throwing bottles and anything else they had at police stationed on the flatbeds, but 15 minutes later the crowd was being dispersed by the mounted patrol and had significantly calmed.

A few people in the crowd suffered minor injuries just after midnight, mainly from thrown bottles. They were treated by paramedics stationed at the scene.

Meanwhile, south of Paris, police dealt with the occasional fight, but had time to socialize with partiers and pose for pictures.

One Metro officer standing behind the barricades took the time to chat with two pretty blond women.

"You guys dancers around here?" the officer asked.

"No," one of the women said, giggling.

"We live here, though," the other one said.

The officer reached into his shirt pocket and took out a little pad of paper and a pen.

"I'll give you my cell (phone) number, but I won't give you my voice mail," the officer said. Then after a couple of seconds added, "Oh, I'll give you my voice mail number, too."

As he handed the paper containing his numbers to one of the women, the other said, "Oh, we like you."

The woman getting the numbers said, "I'll call you. I will."

Not all the police had so much time on their hands, but when they weren't handling a crisis, they tried to make folks happy.

Sgt. Tadd Dodds grabbed a man's hand and held it behind his back, making it appear as if the man was being arrested as the man's girlfriend snapped a picture.

"If we can make them happy by doing something like that, then that's good. We'd rather have everyone happy," Dodds said. "But if someone does something wrong, we will arrest them. But we'd rather have a nice quiet night with everyone happy."

Police strictly enforced the no-glass policy after 6 p.m. and confiscated what they could. They also made an effort to search all backpacks and bags.

Just before 10 p.m. a man refused to let an officer search his bag and started to run south through the crowd in front of the Flamingo Hilton. Two officers immediately jumped over the barricade in the middle of the Strip and chased him down.

Police moved around behind the barricade like sharks picking out revelers who became too rowdy and pulling them over the barricade.

Tim Stevens, a man from the Pacific Northwest who was walking the street preaching repentance, said police had handled the night well.

"They seem to have everything in hand," Stevens said. "The barricades seem to be working well and they have been pretty tolerant of people."