Vehicle restrictions ordered for Woodward Dream Cruise

(WJBK) - Over a million people and tens of thousands of classic Detroit icons are converging on Woodward Ave for the Dream Cruise this weekend. What you don't know is that 2017 will have a different look with increased security.

When there's an event that brings this many people into one area, security is a concern. Every year, the Woodward Dream Cruise has security measures in place but in 2017, the Michigan Attorney General has mandated vehicle restrictions on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Among those are no vehicles over 10,000 pounds and no trailers between Eight Mile to the loop in Pontiac.

Ferndale Police Capt. Vince Palazzolo explains why the changes are needed.

"There's just a lot of people on the roadway. There's a lot of people close to the side of the road, there's people in the median. We have these large vehicles that, unfortunately nowadays, can be used as weapons. We're trying to curtail some of those vehicles from being on the roadway," Palazzolo said.

Due to the size of the rolling car show, it's hard to prevent problems but the best they can do is to plan for everything.

"We try to think of every scenario. The reality is we take all these past events in other cities that have happened. We run those through our minds and wet try to add those into our plan and we do the best we can," Palazzolo said. "It's almost impossible to police every little aspect but we put a lot of uniform patrols out there (and) there's plain clothes officers out there.

"We block of major roadways so we can't get vehicle intrusions from the side. The reality is it's an open roadway; we have to do the best we can. We ask that anybody that hears or sees something unusual to contact the local jurisdiction. Make it so we’re aware and can make sure everything's on the up and up."