PUT-IN-BAY, Ohio — Already understaffed on a regular day, Put-in-Bay Police Chief James Kimble said Saturday's massive crowds were too tall an order for his small department.
"[We were] spread too thin," Kimble said. "Right now, across the entire country, everybody's having a hard time hiring."
Kimble said the department of six full-time officers and seasonal employees during the summer was present on the island all day doing its best to quell the crowds, "but people may or may not have seen us depending on where they were at."
The small team tasked with trying to keep in line an estimated 19,000 visitors, an amount Kimble said they had no advance warning about.
"I was told there would be three busses," he said. "Later on I was told there were 12 busses."
By 5 p.m. Saturday, downtown Put-in-Bay was congested with people and golf carts. Fights started to break out and Kimble said there was no way his staff could get to it all.
It was a situation that Kimble said would need 20-25 officers to adequately handle, a far cry from the staff the department actually had. As more and more service calls came in, Kimble decided outside help was needed.
"The words given to me were that they were losing control of downtown," Ottawa County Sheriff Stephen Levorchick said, recounting the message sent out by Kimble.
Levorchick was one of the people who responded to the call. SWAT teams from three different counties made their way to the island.
Once they secured the ferry, they responded to fight calls and began controlling the flow of traffic.
Throughout the evening, 18 arrests were made between three agencies -- Put-in-Bay police, Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, and the already-present Liquor Control. Despite Put-in-Bay Mayor Judy Berry's claim that "the number of tickets written was not excessive or unusual for a Saturday during the peak summer," Kimble said 18 total arrests is more than typical weekend arrest numbers.
The situation cooled down by 9 p.m. with many people leaving on the last ferry. Kimble said there's always the possibility this could happen again, though, and next time he wants to have enough staff to properly handle it. But he said his officers are being continually poached by bigger agencies.
"So they'll see a person who's been here for two or three years, and they know they've been through a lot, they've seen a lot, done a lot, and they'll snatch them up from us," Kimble said.
The department's reputation, including a 2020 excessive force case, might be holding officers back from going to Put-in-Bay.
"Absolutely. They see the negative side of the media when we get hit with stuff like that, and in some cases not all of it is true," Kimble said. "It makes an officer not want to come here if they're worried they're going to get a bad mark on their record."
Kimble said he is working with state representatives to secure more funding for the department.