BRANSON, Mo. – New information is being released about the extra law enforcement presence over the weekend in Branson due to a motorcycle club gathering.

Police Chief Eric Schmitt said about a month and a half ago, his office was notified of the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club planning an event in town.

The cause for concern, Schmitt said, was other rival motorcycle clubs finding out and coming to Branson to cause problems.

However, there were no major issues.

“The longer we were able to keep it under wraps, gave less time to those rival groups to organize something,” Schmitt said. “In this case, we did hear chatter that once they found out and were able to confirm that that is the group that was coming, they thought about it, but weren’t able to organize anything.”

Multiple area agencies were called in to help.

“It was all of our officers,” he said. “We had some assistance from Taney County. The Highway Patrol assisted us by doing increased presence in the region. We had some detective assets from surrounding counties.”

People took notice of the increased activity over the weekend.

“Pictures that were circulating over the weekend were mostly my SWAT officers and those were slung rifles,” he explained. “Yes, they were out, but they weren’t pointed at anybody or anything like that.”

With extra law enforcement present, Schmitt said officers were able to crack down on some smaller crimes, not necessarily tied to the motorcycle club.

Maybe things were a little over-prepared, he admits, but said he thinks it was for the best.”We don’t want to leave anything to luck,” he said. “If we can control it and we can make a plan, things tend to work out a lot better where we are ready for anything that happens.”