Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

QUINCY, ILL. -- At this point everyone knows there was quite a bit of security before and throughout the president's visit to the Tri-States.

But one group of people saw just how tight security was.

A Mobile Field Force Team was used outside Quincy's Oakley Lindsay Center Wednesday, April 28th for crowd control.

In a news release Thursday, April 29th, Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley explained the incident.

He said around 3:30 PM on Thursday, a group of people had gathered on the south side of York Street near 3rd street, some of those members were from the Tea Party.

Copley says the United States Secret Service had requested that area be kept secure.

Some of those individuals refused to leave when they were asked to, that's when the Mobile Field Force Team was deployed.

"We've taken some criticism on that, but bottom line is we've got a job to do, we've got a site to protect, we've got a scene to keep policed. We were given direction on what area needed to stay clear and we made sure that was done," said Chief Copley.

Copley says no physical contact was ever made and once the team was deployed the people moved out of the area.

Overall Chief Copley says the president's visit was very labor intensive for the Quincy Police Department.

He said ll of his officers were on duty throughout the visit.

Copley says his officers were helping protect the president, but they had other priorities.

"The secret service is there to protect the president, while we do assist them in doing that, most of our focus is with the community. There's a lot of people in Quincy. There's a lot going on at this event, so it's important for us to man those sites and those locations adequately for everybody's safety," said Copley.

We asked Chief Copley how much it cost the department to help with security through out the trip.

He says they are still tallying up all the numbers and will release them when they are finalized.