Biggest crowd he has seen at the event

Yes, there were fights and there was disorderly conduct within Ironton city limits this weekend. But Ironton Police Chief Jim Carey said many of the entries on the police blotter over the weekend may not have had anything to do with Rally on the River per se and the 2011 edition of Rally concluded without any major police incidents.

“We had a lot of complaints from people about noise,” Carey said. “I found that the people we had problems with were people we usually have problems with or who were from the surrounding area.”

He said this year Friends of Ironton hired a private security company to patrol the rally area and this seemed to help. He also said the IPD stopped people from bringing alcohol into the Second Street rally area and turned away people who appeared to be intoxicated.

“I think that helped immensely,” he said.

Carey said, while he is not endorsing the Rally or some of the activities and behaviors associated with it, by and large the people he would classify as “bikers” were willing to comply with local laws once they knew what the laws were. Some were confused about open container laws.

He said most of the fights and other criminal activity took place in other areas of the city and did not seem to involve the Rally visitors.

He said inside the Second Street area that was set up for Rally visitors, there were few reports of problems, in spite of the size of the crowd.

“By far, this is the largest. I’ve never seen so many people in Ironton in the 22 years I’ve been doing this.” He estimated at times police officers were outmanned 10,000 to 1. He praised not only his own officers but also the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio Department of Liquor Control for their work during the weekend.

“They did a wonderful job keeping things under control,” he said. “It did go well for what was taking place.”