Officials announce DNC security ‘footprint’

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MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Officials announced the establishment of a security footprint for the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

The footprint is not a hard perimeter, but it is something officials want people to be aware of.

“This is the first step and it’s an important first step,” said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. “We want the businesses and the residents of this city to know exactly what we know in real time.”

The footprint will be installed the weekend before the convention and it surrounds Fiserv Forum, with borders at Clybourn Street on the south, 10th Street on the west, Cherry Street on the north and Water Street on the east.

“We want to ensure that our plan provides the maximum amount of security to the convention with minimal amount of impact to the citizens of the city of Milwaukee,” said Robert Pacsi, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Secret Service.

Within the security footprint, officials say that no businesses will have to close and residents in the area will have normal access to their homes.

They expect that travel times will be the only thing that will be affected by the footprint.

Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said people can expect similar changes to when President Trump visited UWM Panther Arena recently.

Local leaders today said that security agencies have done a good job of communicating with businesses and residents within the footprint and expect more progress in the coming months.

“We know there’s a lot more work to come,” said Stacie Callies, the executive director for Westown Association. “But we know that we have the right basis for that communication outreach.

Officials noted today that the plan is subject to change and more specific details about a hard perimeter will be released on a later date.

“We’ll now continue to fine tune that,” said Jol Solmonese, the CEO of the Democratic National Convention. “[We’ll] continue to update what happens within that broad footprint, whether that’s the more specific hard perimeter, points of access or transportation issues, how this is going to impact commuters, and what not and that’s the work we’ll continue to do.”

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