Chillicothe is known as the home of the annual Summer Camp Music festival.
This concert weekend involves performances by dozens of well-like bands,
and attracts a free-spirited and musical crowd. Naturally, drugs are a
part of the musical culture, and many individuals will try to smuggle
illegal narcotics into the camp. PJ Star says that the musical festival
has a history of multiple arrests and police are going to take even more
precaution this year to make sure that individuals are not heading to
the music festival with narcotics in their cars.
According to PJ Star, law enforcement circles sometimes refer to the Memorial
Day weekend music festival as "Felony Fest" because of the many
arrests that are made. The music festival's reputation has led many
police officers to park their cars by the roadside and pull over travelers
for car inspections. Many times, they discover marijuana, heroin, cocaine,
or other drugs that concert-goers hoped to use at the festival.
Police in the area say that whenever there are music festivals there is
a large number of arrests. The Peoria Police Chief says that the first
year that he patrolled the concert he was shocked by the widespread and
blatant use of drugs at Summer Camp. Initially he wanted to arrest all
violators, but eventually he realized that there simply wasn't enough
manpower to do this. While the authorities may not be able to arrest all
individuals, the Peoria Police Department says that they will have all
officers available to arrest any blatant felony offenders.
The police say that they will search specifically for suspects selling
drugs at the concert. Festival-goers should be aware that the police will
be all along the Route 29 which leads to Chillicothe looking for drivers
who may be under the influence of drugs. Over the last five years of the
Summer Camp Music Festival, 235 people have been arrested and sent to jail on drug charges. About
151 of those charges were drug charges that ranged from misdemeanor marijuana
possession to felony controlled substance possession and distribution
that resulted in a conviction. 27% of the arrests over the past five years
did not lead to any sort of trial and the offenders were never charged
after they were released from jail.
Police are encouraged to issue ordinance violations when possible in order
to maintain a peaceful atmosphere at the concert and not cause any raucous.
Research shows that if there are an abundance of arrests at the music
festival one year, there is typically a larger amount of suspects who
leave jail without any charges For example, in 2008 17 people were arrested for
drug crimes, and four of them left the jail without ever being charged for their crime.
In 2012, 65 people were arrested, but 28 never faced charges.
Many of the 2012 arrests were for synthetic substances that were later
announced as uncontrolled substances in lab tests. Of the 172 cases that
have been charged in the last five years, only 10 ended in dismissals.
The Peoria Police also have the right to issue ordinance violations which
will only result in a fine and will not require an arrest. The authorities
can give these ordinance violations for possession of drug paraphernalia
or less than one ounce of marijuana. If you are arrested as a result of
the Summer Camp Music Festival this next weekend, you can call the McCall
Law Offices for assistance. These attorneys have over 10 years of combined
legal experience and are very familiar with how to handle a drug charge.