'Toughen Up Salem': Safety Stressed As 1.15+ Million Witch City Halloween Season Visitors Expected

SALEM, MA — Concrete traffic barriers, drone countermeasures, both temporary and permanent cameras, and triple the number of uniform and undercover officers on busy nights are among the enhanced safety measures Salem officials are implementing for this year's Halloween season, with 1.15 million or more visitors expected in the Witch City between late September and the big night on Oct. 31.

Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller said on Tuesday that the steps are being taken in response to terrorist attacks worldwide, including the New Year's Eve attack in New Orleans, where a vehicle rammed into a large crowd on Bourbon Street shortly after midnight, killing 14 and injuring nearly 60.

"To that end, we have beefed up barriers in Salem," Miller said during a news conference at police headquarters. "Where we used to rely primarily on soft (plastic) barriers, we'll be relying primarily on hard (concrete) barriers.

"To be clear, it's not possible to make a city impermeable to (weaponized) vehicles. But we will do our best to toughen up Salem, and to differentiate a little bit better when they really are safe in a frozen zone (to traffic) and when they're on a street where they might see a vehicle."

Miller said there will also be increased road closures around downtown this year, as well as "significant deployment of police officers in vehicles, on bicycles, on foot, in plain clothes and, in some cases, on four feet (police K9s)."

Miller said the police dogs used have been trained in weapons and explosives detection.

Officers from the Peabody and Marblehead Police Departments, State Police, NEMLAC, Essex County Sheriff's Department, the FBI and AFT will also assist Salem police throughout the month with as many as three times as many patrols on the busiest nights of the month.

Those efforts, he said, will help ensure a safe visit for those attending all the creepy goings-on of the season, as well as those who work and live in Salem.

"Salem is not just Halloween Central," Miller said. "We need to go to school, the grocery store, the doctor's office, and a hundred other places while others celebrate Halloween.

"Please be courteous. Please look out for children. Please get home safely."

To help alleviate the traffic and parking crunch, the MBTA will be adding seven additional inbound trains and eight additional outbound trains on Saturdays and Sundays throughout October. There will also be train service every 30 minutes to and from Boston on Halloween itself.

Mayor Dominick Pangallo said regular Salem Ferry service will be expanded through Oct. 2, and an additional 600-passenger ferry will be added for the last two weekends of the month to go along with the regular 150-person passenger service.

The commuter rail unlimited $10 weekend passes will be viable each weekend and will be sold on Halloween as well.

No bicycles or scooters will be allowed on Commuter Rail trains during weekends in October because of the expected crowds.

Pangallo said to expect crowds to increase in the Witch City starting within the next couple of weekends in advance of October.

"As someone who grew up in Salem, I can tell that, for sure, it's been expanded," Pangallo said. "In many ways, that is intentional in that it helps make sure that we don't have a million people coming over the course of one week alone.

"If we're going to have a million people, it's better to have them spread out over four or five weeks. It's actually less impactful for us."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)