The Calgary Flames are in the playoffs and police are making plans to control the crowds and keep revelers and local business on the Red mile safe during the celebrations.

Thousands of fans are expected to stream down 17th Avenue following home games during the postseason and police say they will be ready.

“There is planning that has been taking place for the upcoming playoffs. One thing I can say, the Calgary Police Service, our major event emergency management section, this is not something new for them and this isn’t something new for our service. They work diligently to work on large, major scale events such as the playoffs," said CPS Staff Sgt. Clare Smart. "We do have the resources in place as well as working with our community partners, our public safety partners, community stakeholders.”

Police say liaison officers have met with 160 businesses in the area to ensure they are also prepared to handle the crowds.

“Making sure they have their own safety protocols in place and providing them any information that we can, assistance, opening up those lines of communication, but again, understanding that we are there, that if something was to arise and something was to happen, we may not be able to be at that one business or area if we’ve got a crowd of 20,000 people down on 17th Avenue or in the core. But the thing is we are there, we are there to support, they do have a contact number to speak with us, we have our community resource officers as well in the districts,” said Smart.

“We are very pleased that there’s plans being put in place now for how we can have a great and safe playoff time in Calgary,” said Coleen Harcourt, Marketing and Communications Manager for Downtown Calgary. “We want things to be very manageable in Calgary and it’s just very, very positive that the police service is already meeting with businesses to try and ensure that people are knowledgeable and they know what to do and who to call.”

Construction on the street is posing a bit of a challenge for police and Smart says the service is working with the city to deal with that.

“We are working closely with the City of Calgary roads to make sure that we have up-to-date information as to what is taking place. The other thing is we need to make sure with those construction sites that the construction sites are secure and making sure that the public is safe and, you know, we have a lot of vehicle traffic, pedestrian traffic, and so again, we have to work closely and those are going to change daily as we move forward so again, we are keeping that in mind and that is in our plan going forward.”

Smart says officers are also fans and many are excited to be on the beat during games but that they will not tolerate bad behavior.

“It can be an opportunity for individuals to maybe try to escalate a situation but the thing is we will have several police officers, both patrol, our beats, you know, our mountain bike unit, surrounding the area, that we are going to make sure that we’re able to observe and get to that situation and resolve those situations as soon as possible. When it comes to breaking the law, again, everything is still being enforced. We’re not, there’s no laws being changed, we’re not easing up on anything but the thing is, we have to make sure the number one priority is the safety of the public and we have to remember that even though there’s, again, downtown core, there are a lot of residential areas and so again, we need to respect that. We need to make sure that if people are wandering off and filtering into the communities that there may be police officers that are in the area and the vicinity and asking people, if they are causing a disturbance, to move along.”

She says the plan is flexible if the party moves into another area and that resources will be adjusted accordingly.

“We are flexible enough and our plans are flexible to be able to move our resources, increase our resources and make sure that again, if it was to happen on 17th , it doesn’t mean that we don’t have police officers throughout the rest of the city, I mean, we still have police officers in the downtown core patrolling and again, like I just said, we are flexible enough to move our strategy, change our strategy, that we can still continue in another area and protect the public,” said Smart.

Police say the plan will be amended if the Flames play the Oilers in the first round as fans are expected to travel up and down the QEII Highway between the two cities.

“I think with playing the Oilers, it’s going to be a positive rivalry for Calgary and Edmonton. One thing that is going to happen is we are probably going to see an increase in traffic with Edmonton Oilers’ fans coming down or vice versa, going up to Edmonton, and we have to work with our provincial partners, the RCMP, our sheriffs, in making sure that the roads are safe for all drivers coming to and from the two cities.”

Police are reminding people to take a cab or use a designated driver if they are drinking and that parking bans will be in place along 17th Avenue for all home games.

The Flames still have three regular season games to play and will finish off the season against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

The first round of the playoffs is scheduled to start on April 12th.