ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0One year after a deadly shooting took two lives and injured seven others, all eyes were on downtown Orlando Friday.<\/p>\n
The Orlando Police Department was monitoring and patrolling the streets Friday evening as part of an effort to keep the public safe.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Orlando Police Department added extra patrols Friday to monitor downtown Orlando after a Halloween shooting left 2 dead and 7 injured one year ago
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There were questions about how OPD would address street closures going into Halloween new safety measures were implemented, including reopening streets to traffic on weekends
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The night began with the streets open to vehicle traffic, but after 10 p.m. OPD closed down Orange Avenue, only leaving it open for pedestrians
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Downtown leaders and partygoers had mixed reviews about how the downtown streets should be handled Halloween night<\/p>\n
But earlier in the evening, as crowds prepared to return for another night of costumes and parties, some downtown business leaders and partygoers had mixed feelings about being downtown.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a time for fun, costumes, and packed bars, but safety remains top of mind for many who live and work in downtown Orlando.<\/p>\n
“Given our history on this night, on this holiday on Halloween, I don\u2019t necessarily feel like I want to put myself in a situation that historically has proven to be trouble,” said downtown Orlando consultant Holly Spears.<\/p>\n
In previous years, the Orlando Police Department has closed off several streets to vehicles and turned parts of downtown into a pedestrian-only zone.<\/p>\n
But coming into Friday, OPD did not reveal if that plan would return this year.<\/p>\n
Around 6 p.m., city of Orlando crews were seen bringing barricades onto Orange Avenue as they planned to make adjustments as needed according to the city.<\/p>\n
Holly Spears has worked downtown for 12 years consulting downtown bars, working as a concierge and even hosting events.<\/p>\n
And while she loves and respects OPD, she feels closing off the streets isn\u2019t the safest bet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the traffic is moving and cars are able to get to venues downtown, that means people are on the sidewalks,” Spears said. “They\u2019re going into the bars, they\u2019re getting handed, they\u2019re getting ID’d and the IDs are getting scanned right and it\u2019s a safer environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But others believe that closing roads to traffic helps create a safer, more walkable area for people to celebrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you take safety seriously and you take the precautions every single night, I\u2019m a believer that we can avoid a lot of things,” said Anthem Orlando co-owner Emmanuel Quinones. “And that\u2019s why we want to work with the city and the city to work with us to help us prevent anything, not just here at Anthem, but anywhere around the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthem is a brand-new LGBTQ-friendly bar in the heart of downtown Orlando.<\/p>\n
Quinones said he has seen more police patrols over the last few days and hopes that presence helps people feel safe enough to enjoy themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have security for tonight, tomorrow and Sunday for both doors,” Quinones shared. “So, we\u2019re doing our part to help our guests to come here, have fun and just basically enjoy the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlando PD released a statement this week about their plans, saying:<\/p>\n
“The safety and security of everyone remains the Orlando Police Department’s top priority. While we don\u2019t discuss specific security measures, we always plan and staff large-scale events appropriately to provide proper public safety.”<\/p>\n
But as festivities got started on the street, those celebrating Halloween wanted to let everyone know that they\u2019re just here to have fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people want to come out on that mess, don\u2019t come outside. We\u2019re just trying to have fun,” said Orlando resident Andrian Mateo. “It\u2019s Halloween, God bless us all and God loves us all so we\u2019re just trying to have fun.”<\/p>\n
OPD says they\u2019ll have extra officers on duty throughout the night, and business owners and partygoers alike are urging everyone to stay alert and travel in groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0One year after a deadly shooting took two lives and injured seven others, all eyes were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2967,274,14105,2204,115,1053,1335,768,139,141,140,277,278,2032,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-29383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-brandon-spencer","11":"tag-instagram-n13","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orange","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-orange-county-fl","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-orlando-headlines","18":"tag-orlando-news","19":"tag-public-safety","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-trending-topics","22":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}