Columbus Police could have done a better job handling rowdy crowds after the Ohio State football team won the national championship.
Those are the findings of a deputy police chief who reviewed reports from supervising officers.
But the same reports say police correctly used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse crowds during the celebration.
Police estimated 5,000 people converged on a campus-area street after the Buckeyes beat Oregon on Jan. 12. The department has said revelers ignored requests to clear the streets and emergency personnel couldn’t get through to respond to fires.
Police supervisors’ reports were reviewed by Deputy Chief Thomas Quinlan, who says pepper spray was an appropriate response to the unruly crowd.
But Quinlan says Columbus police should have better communicated with the university and its police during preparations, and backup officers should have been stationed closer to campus.
Complaints about the tear gas are being reviewed.