For local law enforcement, candidate visits take a chunk of budget

Local police snipers, traffic and crowd control are necessary for safety.

YOUNGSTOWN — Though presidential candidates’ close-up security falls to Secret Service agents, local police provide peripheral support.

Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said roughly 80 percent of the resources needed for candidates’ visits — and the attendant cost — is handled by police in the communities where the candidates appear or pass through while campaigning.

“The cost for every candidate is different, depending on where they stay and how long they’re here,” Hughes said Tuesday. “The best I can do to save overtime is divert officers on regular time.”

To save overtime costs, the chief said he tries to reassign officers from the Street Crimes Unit, for example, to work security for candidates. His goal is to have 75 percent of the officers working a candidate detail be on regular time. Right now, about half of the officers working such details are being paid overtime, he said.

Ohio’s primary election is March 4. As the date nears, this area has become a blip on candidates’ radar.

If a candidate lands at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, police in the communities leading into Youngstown, for example, handle the task of closing intersections to allow the motorcade an unimpeded route. City police, along with Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers, then provide the escort.

As the spouse of a former president, Hillary Rodham Clinton had Secret Service protection before she qualified for it as a major Democratic presidential candidate. The New York senator appeared at Chaney High School in Youngstown on Tuesday and inside the General Motors plant in Lordstown last week.

When Clinton stayed overnight in Canfield, before speaking at GM, Mahoning County Sheriff Randall A. Wellington assigned one cruiser outside the location, which he declined to disclose.

He said Secret Service agents’ responsibility is to stay physically close to the candidates to protect them. Agents also accompany a candidate to a hospital if necessary, he said.

Hughes said the Youngstown Police Department bomb squad checked out the airport and Clinton’s overnight accommodations for her GM visit. Her trip to Youngstown on Tuesday did not involve a flight into the airport in Vienna.

In May 2007, Barack Obama received Secret Service protection as a Democratic presidential candidate. On Monday, the Illinois senator appeared at Youngstown State University and inside RMI Titanium in Weathersfield.

The chief said a bomb detecting dog from Summit County came in before Obama’s appearance at YSU. The YPD bomb squad has no dog.

Snipers from YPD were deployed at the university and at Chaney, he said.

Hughes estimated that roughly 60 police officers — from the city, university and state patrol — worked the Obama-YSU detail. Obama’s visit, on Presidents Day, required holiday pay for police, the chief said.

He didn’t have the final number of officers assigned to Clinton’s Chaney visit before the event. Locals are called upon to provide traffic and crowd control, as well as have tactical units on hand, he said.

Campaign staffers determine where candidates will appear, and the Secret Service, unless there’s a strong objection by agents to the venue, makes it work, said Lt. Robin Lees, commander of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force. He said the Secret Service assesses the threat level and makes tactical support requests to his unit and others based on the threat level.

Lees said the Secret Service asks for officers for fixed posts but, for safety reasons, declined to offer any specifics.

“They are the bottom line,” Lees said of the Secret Service. “They have to think the operation through. We are there in greater numbers than the Secret Service; the only exception would be when the president visits.”

Hughes recalled a trip to the B&O Station in Youngstown by then-President Bill Clinton in 1996, during his re-election campaign.

“We thought the B&O was a bad location because of high-rise buildings around it but [the campaign] wanted it,” the chief said, adding he was in charge of local security. “We didn’t want him to walk outside the stage area and put up barriers, but he made us move them.”

To make the area secure, snipers were positioned on the surrounding buildings, Hughes said.

Lees said the B&O was a good location when George W. Bush’s campaign train pulled into the station.

“It was self-contained, no motorcade,” Lees said. “He got off the train, spoke and got back on the train.”