With NFL draft 2 years away, Green Bay police chief begins making plans for influx of people in the city

GREEN BAY - It'll begin with a phone or Zoom call to the Kansas City police department, and later, a trip to Detroit, as the Green Bay Police Department prepares for the NFL draft.

Green Bay has roughly 23 months before hosting the 2025 NFL draft, but Police Chief Chris Davis has already been making some plans, and doing some homework (and a great deal of thinking) to begin preparing his men and women for what Discover Green Bay CEO Brad Toll called "probably the largest event that'll ever come to Green Bay."

About 240,000 fans are expected to attend the draft over three days in late April or early May 2025. The population of the city of Green Bay is about 107,000.

RELATED:Green Bay-area leaders eager to showcase region to NFL draft visitors

Davis and other police department officials say it's early in the planning process, but not too early to begin asking questions and making plans. Green Bay will be the next community to host the 2025 NFL draft, following Detroit, which will host the 2024 one.

Who else will police Green Bay on draft days?

Davis has a fairly strong idea that he'll likely need more trained officers to supplement the department's roughly 187 funded posts, and possibly another patrol boat, but he doesn't yet know which city's police chief he'll ask first if he or she has officers to "lend."

Davis also said there's an advantage to working with other departments in Wisconsin, instead of Michigan or Illinois, because they enforce the same laws.

Unlike drafts in Las Vegas and Kansas City, Davis said, "another department with a patrol boat," and officers trained to use it, will be something we'll need to protect a city "with this much waterfront." Also, Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said one of the ideas was to bring in a cruise ship that serves the Great Lakes and dock it along the Fox River, as a way to provide extra lodging space in Green Bay.

How much extra protection Green Bay will need still must be determined.

It's too soon to tell, but here's an idea: Kansas City's KCTV reported that more than 20 police agencies were slated to be involved in draft security.

RELATED:Green Bay will host 2025 draft, but NFL will be in charge

Visit Detroit, see how cops there handle crowd?

Davis indicated that a handful of Green Bay officers will be tasked with helping to lead the team assigned to police the draft, and the week preceding it. Some of them will be sent to Detroit before the draft planned for 2024.

Good news: When Las Vegas hosted the 2022 NFL Draft, police made few arrests

Police in Las Vegas, Nev., made five arrests during the three days of the 2023 draft, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Most were for low-level offenses.

Email Doug Schneider at DSchneid@gannett.com, call him at (920) 265-2070 and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider