ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg Police say their work to make sure this weekend’s upcoming pride parade is as safe as possible is already in full swing.
The annual St. Pete Pride Parade is expected to draw more than 360,000 people along the waterfront route stretching from Albert Whitted Park to North Shore Park, a turnout that could rival last year’s record attendance.
The Trans March steps off Saturday from Vinoy Park at 5:15 p.m., followed by the St. Pete Pride Parade at 6 p.m.
In the days leading up the parade, detectives are scouring social media and online platforms to check for any type of threats that could pose a safety risk.
“With the growth of social media thats where a lot of intel can be collected, people will post things and we can track them,” said Maj. Markus Hughes with the St. Pete Police Department. “Just making sure that if there is anyone making threats somewhere online that we can check it and see if it’s actual threat or just someone posting.”
Hughes says over the next two days, leadership is finalizing staffing plans and working to pinpoint where the busiest areas will be. In addition to uniformed and plain clothes officers, a network of waterfront cameras will also allow officers to monitor activity in real time from back at the station and through a mobile command center near the parade route.
Additionally, drones can be launched from the St. Pete Police Department’s downtown headquarters if they need to get a better eye on a situation.
“It’s not surveillance,” Hughes said. “The drones won’t be up for the entire parade or entire street festival. It would just be if there’s a call for service or something suspicious we need to get better eyes on.”
Dr. Byron Green-Calisch, president of St. Pete Pride, says they’re expecting 360,000 people to attend this weekend’s pride festivities. He says what’s happening at the state level often has a direct impact on attendance numbers.
“The more negatively the state legislature talks about queer people at large, the more people show up,” he said. “In 2023 we saw a pretty strong spike in attendance. We saw more last year with ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and then we’re expecting even more this year with the multiple bills that passed through the state legislature.”
For St. Pete Pride, safety remains one of the event’s biggest expenses and highest priorities.
“My objective is to think about how do I get people back home safely,” Green-Calisch said. “When the month of July starts, we never want to be a position where we are celebrating the life of somebody because they lost their life at one of our events. That is my worst fear. The moment you skimp on those security pieces, you don’t want to be a position where you made a decision about finances that cost someone their life.”
Officials are also preparing for extreme heat. Police say they will monitor both attendees and officers for signs of heat-related illness and encourage people to stay hydrated and seek shade whenever possible.
On Wednesday, St. Pete Pride announced a venue change for Friday’s headline concert. The event has been moved from Al Lang Stadium to the Coliseum. Organizers said the decision was made in part to protect attendees from the heat while also providing a more controlled environment with limited entry and exit points.