During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, one of the places he visited in those two days was the Microsoft Corp. campus in Redmond.
In preparation for his visit to the tech company’s headquarters on Wednesday, the Redmond Police Department (RPD) partnered with other area law enforcement agencies, as well as Microsoft, to plan.
“There was a lot of planning,” said RPD public information officer (PIO) Becky Range.
She said RPD was given preliminary notification of the possibility of the visit the week of Sept. 7. Area law enforcement agencies were given details for the visit on Sept. 15 and were asked to prepare.
Photo courtesy of Redmond Police Department
Range said RPD Cmdr. Erik Scairpon took the lead, forming an incident-management team and began the complex planning process needed for high-level events of this magnitude
“The police team had to plan for several aspects of the visit, including traffic control, security of the entire Microsoft area, security of a 130-plus vehicle motorcade and preparation for protesters and supporters,” Range said.
She said RPD coordinated closely with Washington State Patrol — who provided the motorcade route information — to adjust the local traffic plan accordingly. She added that the tri-county scope of the motorcade collectively included 240 miles of travel — unprecedented for the region.
The only road in Redmond that was closed while the Chinese president was in town was Northeast 40th Street, though Range added that they did close off a few freeway ramps in the area, as well. She said when President Xi arrived at Microsoft, Northeast 40th Street was closed for 51 minutes and it was closed for 26 minutes when he was leaving the area.
RPD also worked with both Lake Washington and Bellevue school districts to address school bus traffic throughout the area.
In addition to coordinating with other law enforcement agencies, Redmond police worked closely with Microsoft’s security and media relations teams to ensure security of the public property around the campus, as well as scenarios for issues that might arise on campus, Range said.
Photo courtesy of Redmond Police Department
Some of those scenarios they were planning for revolved around the protesters lining the streets as Xi arrived.
Range said the protesters themselves were very helpful to RPD as they contacted the police to let them know what was going on and what they needed. There were also not as many protesters as they had expected as many ended up stuck in traffic as a result of Xi’s visit, or they were at other locations the Chinese president was visiting.
RPD also worked with the city’s Public Works Department for the visit to handle things such as cleaning up after people, but Range said Wednesday’s protesters made sure to do that themselves.
“The protest groups were very, very good,” she said.
While things on the protesting front went smoothly, Range said RPD’s civil disturbance unit was ready. They also prepared with Microsoft’s security team in case anything happened on the company’s private property.
“I want to say thank you so much to our partner agencies for their willingness to participate and the professional demeanor all their officers displayed,” said Redmond Police Chief Ron Gibson. “We could not have provided public safety for an event of this size and scope without their assistance.”
Photo courtesy of AP photos/Ted S. Warren, Pool
Scairpon was also pleased with the visit and the seamless integration of so many law enforcement agencies.
“As many as 15 different badges could be seen on the day of the event, representing our law enforcement partners from as far away as Tukwila, up to our closest neighbors, Bellevue and Kirkland,” he said. “It was truly a team effort and there were minimal issues during the event.”
He also wanted to recognize the Redmond police communications team as they worked in partnership with communications specialists from NORCOM to manage a communications network for more than 100 officers, which was quite impressive.
