One of San Diego's biggest public events happens this weekend. San Diego's pride parade takes place tomorrow bringing about 200,000 votes to celebrate. Security concerns for the parade were already heightened after the attacks in Orlando and Dallas. Now, after the truck attack in France, is even more attention to security. Enjoyed by Stephen Whitburn executive director of Cindy -- LGBT pride in San Diego. You about this terrible attack in Nice. What are your thoughts? My thoughts like anybody's thoughts are horror at what happened and wanting to be sure where you go it will be safe and secure. With the bright celebration coming up this weekend, people have security on their minds. I want to reassure people that security has been on the minds of those planning for the events for a long time. And security is a top priority area. Anytime you have 200,000 people hitting together, the police are taking precautions, this is an event that has attracted protests. There's always a significant police presence there. This year there will be additional safety precautions you can expect a heightened security presence. We have the US Army secretary going to be in the parade this year. Eric banning first LGBT head of a military unit like that. There will be extra security for him. One of metal detectors for the first time which isn't a bad idea anyway. I think people can come out to pride and feel safe. Even talking with police for a while especially after the most recent attacks after yesterday's attacks, have you spoken with police additionally? Is there anything else you think you can do or they can do for the event? I think we're in good shape. There's a lot of planning that's gone into it. A brief conversation this morning, there are no edible targeted threats towards San Diego pride and there never have been. In the interim, the list of all these things that have gone on, San Francisco pride went on with -- without a hitch. New York City pride with outage. There been a number of rides that have gone well. We just had the All-Star game in San Diego. The San Diego Police Department know what they are doing. They're very sophisticated and experienced. They know San Diego pride very well and I feel like we are in good hands. Have you heard of any parade or event participants coming to you with a sense of apprehension. Yes. We've gotten cushions for people. One of the things we do is lay out the fact that we have been taking security precautions and usually when we do that, people feel we've done everything we can do to ensure people's safety and in fact, there are some people think we've gone too far with the metal detectors at the festival. So people don't feel that safe around police for various reasons. It's a balance. We have aired on the side of safety. Think people can come to pride and feel safe and have a really good time. It starts tonight. Starts tonight with the pride rally at the Balboa Park. Our keynote speaker is expanding US secretary of the Army. It is just confirmed in May so excited to have him. We will have the CEO of the San Diego Padres is speaking which will be great to hear from and of course tomorrow with God's parade and 11 and the festival in the ballpark all day Saturday and Sunday. Thank you on this very busy day for coming out.
Expect to see more police officers at this weekend's San Diego Pride festivities and next week's Comic-Con International.
Chief Shelley Zimmerman on Thursday said San Diego police are adding extra security following recent tragedies around the nation.
Law enforcement is on high alert after the mass shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida and the protest in Dallas, where a lone gunman targeted police during a protest.
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“After the tragedy that happened in Dallas, that is the back of all our minds, you know," Zimmerman said. "We all have to make sure that everyone is safe, that it’s not just the officer's safety but it’s citizens’ safety. We’re asking everyone to be vigilant.”
Zimmerman said that means telling police when you’ve seen anything out of the ordinary. The city is calling on officers from surrounding departments to bolster the police presence at San Diego’s biggest summer events. In addition to uniformed officers, there will be extra plainclothes officers. So far, no credible threat directed at either event has been reported.
