Seattle Police adding more patrols to ensure safety at Pride events this weekend

Staying safe during Pride celebrations

Seattle Police will be increasing patrols in downtown near Pride celebrations to ensure safety.

SEATTLE - Seattle Police are preparing for a long weekend of Pride activities.

On Sunday alone, SPD expects more than 300,000 people to come through downtown Seattle for Pride. That includes the parade, people heading to Seattle Center and moving towards Capitol Hill.

SPD said it will be adding more staff to help patrol the area.

FOX 13 heard from SPD's incident commander who will be overseeing operations this weekend.

His advice for people to stay safe this weekend:

Use the buddy system, never leave your friends alone
Monitor how much alcohol you drink. It will be warm, so stay hydrated
Most importantly, if you see something then say something. Police officers will be at each event, so response times should be fast.

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"The biggest thing we want to make sure is that if incidents occur, that the police department be aware that they are being reported," said Capt. Jim Britt, SPD. "We will have officers throughout the different venues. If something occurs, it's very much a ‘see something, say something situation.’ We want to know about it so we can take appropriate action so everyone has a good time."

As far as traffic and getting public transportation, Capt. Britt said people have to be patient this weekend. Capitol Hill alone is expecting more than 15,000 people at once, SPD said.

Seattle will have 28 events happening around the city for Pride weekend.

SPD was asked if they are adding more people than usual because of recent violent events: they said it’s about the same as other major events they cover.