Public safety success during NFL draft a result of extensive planning, teamwork, officials say

Despite Green Bay’s population growing to almost six times its size during the 2025 NFL Draft, law enforcement contacts throughout the county were less than an average week, Brown County Sheriff Todd Delain said at an April 29 news conference.

More than 600,000 people attended the NFL draft April 24-26 and law enforcement only had to make one arrest. That wasn’t by accident, Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis said.

The Green Bay Police Department, Green Bay Metro Fire Department, Ashwaubenon Public Safety Department and Brown County Sheriff’s Office spent over a year planning for the draft, Davis said.

They tried to think of every possible scenario, Ashwaubenon Public Safety Interim Chief Thomas Rolling said, and plan how they would respond.

There were no big public safety issues to address, which was exactly the goal, Davis said.

“It all went so smoothly,” Davis said. “If you’re doing it right, they won’t know you did anything at all and we did a lot of hard work behind the scenes to do our part to keep the event safe.”

In addition to extensive planning, the strength of the agencies’ partnerships and their teamwork were essential to the success of the event, Davis said. The level of teamwork was recognized by many of the partners they worked with, and the collaboration between municipalities “really distinguished us from other events like this,” Davis said.

“We’re a relatively small public safety community here, but when we come together, we can do great things,” Davis said. “I think we saw an example of that.”

The real thanks goes to the fans and the community, Delain said. Fans, both local and visiting, were well-behaved and are what truly made the event so special, he said.

“This is a reflection of the culture of Wisconsin, the friendliness of the Midwest, and what to expect,” Delain said. “My hats off to the community, and especially our Packer fans who showed up and had a positive light on our community.”

Law enforcement contacts up in Ashwaubenon, average in Green Bay outside draft

Inside the draft footprint, one person was arrested and eight were ejected over the three days of the draft. In total, there were 58 police calls for service inside the footprint, Davis said.

Outside the footprint, law enforcement agencies had different experiences. Across the county overall, Delain said, there were fewer law enforcement contacts and fewer people booked into Brown County Jail than an average week.

In Green Bay, Davis said it was a fairly typical summer weekend. The department had 560 total calls for service April 24-26, Davis said, which is “certainly not the busiest weekend we’ve seen.”

Green Bay police only arrested four people for driving under the influence, which Davis said he found particularly interesting. He contributed the lack of drunken driving in part to the Brown County Tavern League’s SafeRide Program and the city’s special draft bus route.

The tavern league provided a total 2,627 rides for 9,013 passengers, said Don Mjelde, the league’s Eastern District vice president, in a news release.

In Ashwaubenon, the entertainment district was much busier and rowdier than a normal weekend, Rolling said. In that area over the three days, Rolling said Ashwaubenon Public Safety arrested two people, gave three underage drinking citations, one property damage citation, two theft citations, five disorderly conduct citations and one resisting or obstructing an officer citation.

On a normal weekend, Rolling said they might have one arrest or one disorderly conduct incident.

“With that many people down there, and, of course, drinking and maybe overdoing it a little bit, I think we did a great job with the presence we had down there and the enforcement actions that we took,” Rolling said.

Statewide planning, Green Bay Metro Transit contributed to traffic success

Having cars in standstill traffic, making “parking lots out on our roads,” was Rolling’s biggest fear for the draft. Thanks to a robust statewide traffic plan and public transportation, that didn’t happen.

Traffic was another area where collaboration and cooperation were vital, Rolling said, which meant having weekly meetings between several agencies including the village and city’s public works departments, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Wisconsin State Patrol and more.

As a team, the agencies created traffic plans and tried their best to break it, Rolling said, finding any opportunity where it wouldn’t work. They kept adjusting, even throughout the draft, and were able to keep cars moving.

One major difference in the traffic management plan for the draft compared to a Green Bay Packers game was that it was integrated at a state level, Davis said. The Wisconsin State Patrol took care of all the traffic posts, he said.

The start and end times of the draft also made a difference in traffic, Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said. During a Packers game, there are hard start and end times that lead to congestion. For the draft, people come and go throughout the day.

“You see people kind of moving through there at more irregular times versus start and end,” Genrich said. “I think that helps a great deal with congestion on roads.”

The transportation options provided by the Brown County Tavern League and Green Bay Metro Transit also contributed to the lack of traffic, Genrich said, as fewer cars were on the road. Green Bay Metro Transit’s special Downtown to Titletown bus route made 20,000 trips over the three days, while an average three-day period runs 8,000 trips.

Vivian Barrett is the public safety reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at vmbarrett@greenbay.gannett.com or (920) 431-8314. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @vivianbarrett_.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: 2025 NFL Draft public safety success came from teamwork, planning