Bringing in 3,000 outside law enforcement officers for the Republican National Convention will require about 1,500 hotel rooms, costing about $2 million.
Tampa city officials are not identifying which hotels they're using or even what chains they've booked with for the same reason they don't give out the home addresses of their officers, says a Tampa Bay Times report.
Up to two-thirds of the $50 million in federal funds that the city is getting to pay for convention security is expected to be used to pay, house and feed additional officers needed for the convention, scheduled for Aug. 27-30, the report says.
The convention is expected to draw up to 15,000 protesters, with one coalition of organized labor, student radicals and anti-war activists calling on groups nationwide to march on the event's first day. Police expect most demonstrators to be peaceful, but are concerned that a small number of vandals and violent provocateurs will try to disrupt the convention.