Fourth festivities quiet, police say

By M. Scott Carter

July 06, 2008 12:52 am

— •Hot weather, light traffic credited for uneventful day
By M. Scott Carter
Transcript Staff Writer
Record gas prices and hotter-than-usual July temperatures may have combined to keep Norman’s Independence Day celebration quiet, police officials said Saturday.
Norman Police Lt. Kyle Harris said Friday’s celebration was “uneventful.”
“I don’t remember us making any arrests,” Harris said. “It was more of a typical Friday, nothing out of the ordinary.”
Harris said the department had a “full contingent” of bicycle officers stationed at Reaves Park, the site of the city’s annual Fourth of July event.
“We had a pretty good number of officers there,” he said. “But there weren’t that many people at the park during the heat of the day. People seemed to wait until it got cooler, toward the evening.”
Harris said traffic for the event was lighter than usual.
“Typically on something like this the night shift officers, who direct traffic, never get done before 11 p.m. This year they were done much earlier.”
Police, Harris said, made “only a couple” of DUI arrests. One involved a motor vehicle accident and the other was the result of a traffic stop, he said.
M. Scott Carter366-3545scarter@normantranscript.com