ORLANDO, Fla. — With Halloween landing on a Saturday night, downtown Orlando is bracing for one of its biggest crowds of the year, and the Orlando Police Department, bar owners and restaurant managers say they have layered on extra protection to match.
On the weekend calendar are the Downtown Orlando Halloween Bar Crawl plus the yearly Thornton Park block party. Police plan to have officers in uniform and others working undercover. Bars are expected to run bag checks, sweep patrons with handheld metal detectors and scan IDs, steps the city already requires of late-night venues. At least one downtown pizza shop has hired a security guard for every night of the weekend to watch its dining room and the sidewalk line.
The department has said it does not discuss specific security tactics but staffs large events according to expected needs and adjusts as the night goes on. Anyone who notices something suspicious is asked to call 911 or flag down an officer working the event.
The holiday also marks two years since gunfire downtown in the early hours of Nov. 1, 2024, killed two people and wounded seven. The gunman in that attack, Jaylen Edgar, received a life sentence this week. Business managers say the violence kept some customers away from the district for a long time.
Police point to better numbers this year. The department reports downtown crime down 20 percent from last year and violent crime down 4 percent. In the last 10 months, police tallied 2,848 arrests, with 462 alcohol related and 469 tied to drugs, and taken 69 illegal guns off the street.
Much of the late-night framework comes from the After Midnight Alcohol Sales permit, adopted in 2023. Any Downtown Entertainment District business serving alcohol after midnight and until 2 a.m. must hold the permit, use metal detectors and ID scanners, and help pay for extra public safety staffing. A six-week undercover sweep earlier this month turned up drug sales or permit violations at 12 establishments.
Section: More Orlando FL crime news
Filed under: Orlando FL Public Safety News
