An unsanctioned event May 2 posed safety and noise issues, leading nine law enforcement officers from the township, Miamisburg and Montgomery County to clear more than 200 cars from the scene, township records show.
One resident of The Flats at Austin Landing told a dispatcher the behavior of some participants gave him concern that “someone’s going to get killed.”
The letter gives township police “consent to trespass any and all persons on Austin Landing publicly accessible and/or private property at Austin Landing at any hour deemed by the MTPD to be unauthorized.…”
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The letter signed by Austin Landing Co-Manager Joseph Simhon allows police “authority to sign any criminal complaint pursuant to any violation of loitering or trespassing.”
Austin Landing has commonly been a site of car shows in the spring and summer months. But management said it has cancelled sanctioned events due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Miami Twp. police have dozens of similar agreements with various businesses and properties, Capt. John Magill said.
The Austin Landing agreement with police is not designed to discourage gatherings, but to deter unruly behavior, said Miami Twp. Officer Pat McCoy, a department spokesman.
The issue on May 2 wasn’t “the fact that they are meeting there….it was that some of them were driving stupid. They were being reckless,” McCoy said.
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“And if we get complaints like that, we’re definitely going to react,” he added.
No arrests were made or citations were issued because of the scene earlier this month, police said.
It took officers about an hour to clear the scene near Rigby Road and Innovation Drive in a parking garage near the Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas, records show.
The May 2 gathering came two days after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine extended Ohio’s stay-at-home order through May 29.
Under the order prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, “any gathering of more than 10 people is prohibited unless exempted by this order.”
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