Bar owners asked for more police presence downtown, and the Lawrence Police Department gave it a try.

Between June 29 and Aug. 4, Lawrence police put 10 extra officers on patrol downtown every Friday and Saturday night.

“The theory is that if you address the small things, it will prevent the larger things from occurring,” said Sgt. Dan Ward, who led the Summer Safety Initiative.

During those 96 hours, Ward said the officers handled issues such as smoking in a public place, urination in public, consumption of alcohol in public and minors in possession of alcohol.

“Those are the kinds of crimes we don’t normally have the manpower to address because we’re call-driven,” Ward said.

Assisted by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the State Division of Alcohol Beverage Control and a Kansas City-area law enforcement agency, the team also responded to major offenses.

“We had a couple arrests of possession of crack cocaine with intent to sell. We recovered three handguns, and we also had an aggravated battery arrest,” Ward said.

In limited numbers, officers reported witnessing open drug use and gang activity inside establishments. Though Police Chief Ron Olin considers it a coincidence, there were no incidents of violent street crime during the six-week project.

“We don’t know if we had any impact because of our presence, but it did work out that way,” Olin told Lawrence City commissioners at their weekly meeting Tuesday night.

Chuck Magerl, owner of Free State Brewing Co., said the added police presence downtown was noticeable both on the street and in the establishments.

“It shows a commitment on the part of the city to keep the atmosphere downtown welcoming and friendly,” Magerl said. “I think it sends a good message to Lawrence residents and out-of-town guests that we care about their safety and well-being.”

In all, the officers made arrests or wrote notices to appear 226 times, took 207 traffic enforcement actions and conducted 169 bar checks in 55 establishments.

“We did address bars throughout the city. We went from very small bars to the large ones,” Ward said. “Obviously, we have some bars in town that have a normal capacity of 300 to 400 people, and when you get that many people in one place and then throw in alcohol, those are the situations that end up having problems.”

After reviewing the project, Olin told commissioners that police presence alone will not address the issue of downtown safety.

“We need to have cooperation from owners. We need to have cooperation from patrons,” he said.

Olin said the project cost $33,447. That does not include the cost to other agencies assisting Lawrence.