South Bend Police Chief Ron Teachman told the media on Tuesday his officers are overwhelmed and unable to work all of the special events the city has planned.

Aaron Perri, Executive Director of Downtown South Bend, says a solution for this would be to hire a private security firm.

“I know there are strains on their schedules and strains on their budget,” says Perri. “It's probably unreasonable to expect that the police could staff every event at every time in all of South Bend.”

A plan B would be to hire someone like Gene Mikolajewski, owner of Mikolajewski & Associates Security.

Mikolajewski has been in the private security business for over 20 years and says his company, along with plenty of other firms, are ready for this new challenge.

“We've done the St. Patrick's party downtown and we're going to do the upcoming rooftop events,” says Mikolajewski.

Mikolajewski is a retired South Bend Police officer and he says he understands the department's feelings.

So, now that South Bend Police say they can't commit to everything the city has planned, this could mean bigger business for him.

Event organizers agree.
“There are some critical points where we need police to help us but the rest we could probably ask a volunteer or a private security firm,” says Perri.