SAVANNAH, Ga () — City officials met in Johnson Square Tuesday to outline safety measures of the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

A major events task force was formed just over a month ago to help the city manage the 40-plus occasions they have every year, in the safest way possible.  With that, the city is stepping up and has told it’s time to crack down on safety.

The Savannah Police Department (SPD) is taking a different approach by increasing their police presence. They said The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office is sending 50 deputies to help with the parade route, which is 30 more than last year.

“This year, we’ve reached out to both the FBI, the GBI and GEMA’s Homeland Security units to get threat assessments on the weekend and the parade route,” Sgt. Jason Pagliaro with the Savannah Police Department said. “As of today, there are no credible threats to our event that weekend.”

Even though the events will be heavily based in downtown, SPD says they will still have more than enough people on the beat to respond and serve the entire community. The Savannah Fire Department (SFD) is also taking part in the enhanced measures.

“We have our regular staff with our units but we’re going to stand up additional units in the festival area, eight additional units,” Elzie Kitchen with the SFD said. “That includes our hazmat and marine unit, and we will make sure that the city is safe.”

The city is taking it a step further and placing water barricades throughout the city to stop cars from accessing certain roads. One location includes River Street, home to Cassandra’s Jewelry Imports.

“Oh, I’m pretty excited about it,” Amanda Gallop said. “I mean, that was scary that happened in Louisiana. But I think that the traffic being able to come and go, and then people don’t pay attention… then you have people coming in the wrong way.  It gives people a sense of like they’re safe.”

Click here to learn more about the road closures, and more information about March 17.