2006 DPS Annual Report - Arizona Department of Public Safety

Highway Patrol
Division
Highlights of the Highway Patrol Division:
Highway Patrol Division provides security for hundreds left homeless after Hurricane
Katrina.
Following the devastation that resulted from Hurricane Katrina, many evacuees of New Orleans and the
Gulf Coast Region were airlifted to Phoenix and provided
temporary shelter in the Coliseum within the State
Fair Grounds facility located at 19 th Avenue and
McDowell. On September 3 of FY 2006, a large contingent
of DPS Highway Patrol officers with the assistance
of various elements of the Criminal Investigations Division,
Agency Support Division and Criminal Justice
Agency Support Division provided security to those making
the coliseum their temporary home. At the height of
the detail titled “Operation: Good Neighbor” the Coliseum
was home to over 500 evacuees and secured
by nearly 100 officers from the Department.
All days off and vacations were suspended in
both Metro East and Metro West Patrol Bureaus
to immediately staff the uniformed presence
needed to secure and provide assistance to the
evacuees within the shelter. DPS officers assigned
to the coliseum were involved in a variety
of law enforcement tasks, including screening
all evacuees with a metal detector and
searching their bags as they arrived. While officers
from the road came to man security posts at the coliseum,
others such as the men and women of the Commercial Vehicle
Enforcement Bureau assisted with those duties out
on the road.
The evacuees fled from an area where the sense of law and
order was rapidly deteriorating due to the scope of the natural
disaster. Desperately seeking law and order again, most
of the hurricane evacuees were very appreciative of the
24/7 law enforcement presence at the facility. During the two week period, in which the coliseum was
occupied as a shelter, no major incidents occurred despite the large number of evacuees housed in the
confines of the coliseum.
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