HILLCREST (KGTV) Thousands of people are expected to fill Hillcrest this Pride Weekend, and businesses are taking extra steps to keep customers safe.<\/p>\n
From hiring additional security to increasing staff for crowd control, many businesses are preparing for one of San Diego’s biggest events of the year.<\/p>\n
Big Mike, a bartender at The Brass Rail, said the bar has been coordinating directly with law enforcement ahead of the weekend.<\/p>\n
“Our staff, we’ve hired a lot of security, also we have a good connection with the police department and the chief, we’ve been talking with them and making sure that if we need to get a hold of them, how do we do it fast to make sure we’re secure,” Big Mike said.<\/p>\n
Natalie Starr of the Hillcrest Business Association said visitors should also come prepared.<\/p>\n
“If you are coming out to celebrate here in Hillcrest, make sure you have a clear bag or a small clutch no bigger than a fanny pack. This is the busiest weekend, so every single bar and nightclub hires more staff for crowd control as well as increases security,” Starr said.<\/p>\n
The San Diego Police Department has warned that large gatherings may increase the risk of theft or crimes against people, and is asking attendees to stay aware of their surroundings.<\/p>\n
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl encouraged the public to speak up if they notice anything concerning.<\/p>\n
“We want to make sure that everyone is there to have a good time and that that’s exactly how things go we encourage people that if they see something, say something to one of the police officers out there,” Wahl said.<\/p>\n
Businesses say the goal is straightforward \u2014 to make sure people can celebrate while feeling safe.<\/p>\n
“The fact that we’re able to do this, be able to come together like we are celebrating our diversity, our equality, and we’re still fighting for it,” Big Mike said.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HILLCREST (KGTV) Thousands of people are expected to fill Hillcrest this Pride Weekend, and businesses are taking extra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[14768,141770,74,76,75,123137,161997,161998],"class_list":["post-403889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-hillcrest","tag-pride-2026","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-pride","tag-security-increase","tag-the-brass-rail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}