Rent A Cops wrote:
Cops are civilians too and are under the US Constitution. They don't use military police at the marathon.
Other marathons have a a few real cops, many secirity guards, with the bulk of the work done by rent-a-cops, retirees, and volunteers.
New York Marathon already uses retired high school coaches, retired firemen, and retired cops, for most of the media, web, photography, videography, stats, and operations functions. So they already know how to manage droves of volunteers.
Mostly incorrect. Police, sheriff deputies, etc, are sworn officers. They have the authority to deal with traffic, block roads, etc. Rent-a-cops, retirees, volunteers, man water stations, secure start/finish areas, and manage participants, etc. Volunteers direct runners, police direct traffic, and woe to the race director that gets that mixed up.
Real cops or other sworn officers (highway patrol, etc) are needed because the general public isn't required to follow orders given by some blue hair in a reflective vest. The number you will need to hire is normally given to you during the permitting process, or in many cases before that process starts. You don't have the option to use volunteers or rent-a-cops. If you try, you won't get your permit.
Today that concept is expanding to parks and trails where many municipalities are expecting permitting (and fees) for organized events off-road. Here in Winston-Salem we pay to use major parks for organized events and there's a per-participant fee for the trail system. Wake Forest and WSSU require hiring of campus police for events along with extra liability insurance.
Locally the costs aren't prohibitive but certainly add about 15-20% to the race fees. Regionally however several cities have jacked up the costs to the point they've either intentionally driven events out of town (Greensboro) or unintentionally done it because they think every race is a Race for the Cure that gets 10,000 people.