Food & Wine brings increased calls for assistance

With rich food and world-class wine landing in town this weekend comes a high call volume at the Aspen Police Department. 

But the calls are in general not crime related. The department expects an increase in non-emergency requests for assistance with the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

“We just run into lots of people who need things that are unique to their own situation,” Assistant Aspen Police Chief Bill Linn said. “‘I went out, and I’m unfamiliar with Aspen, and I parked like six blocks from here, and I cannot find that rental car; I don’t exactly remember what color it was’ — you know, that sort of thing.”

He encouraged the public to remember to use the non-emergency Aspen Police line at (970) 920-5400 rather than the department’s 9-1-1 number, unless in an actual emergency.

“Sometimes, we get 9-1-1 calls about stuff that are not exactly an emergency,” he said. “But we don’t want them to call there.”

He said he doesn’t have data regarding the number of calls Aspen Police gets on the weekend. Lori Lefevre, who handles public relations for Food & Wine, said the event has a 4,000-person capacity.

Aspen Police’s “Full Complement” will be working the weekend, which includes six-person patrol shifts, multiple community response officers, and on-call detective support.

Linn doesn’t expect crime-related calls to increase during the event weekend.

“This population doesn’t result in a lot more crime,” he said. “They just do keep us busy.”

He said they also get calls for minor abrasions. 

“It’s an event in which people are invited in to sample really rich food and really awesome wine,” he said. “And so honestly, we see a lot of skinned knees by people unfamiliar with walking in the mall … walking in the bricks out there.”

Parker Lathrop said the Pitkin County Sheriff’s office isn’t substantially impacted by Food & Wine because the event is contained within Aspen. But he added that he, too, hears more calls for service over the radio, though.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at [email protected].