DETROIT (FOX 2) – It’s a real sign of the holidays, the annual tree lighting ceremony in downtown Detroit. In the meantime, a security plan with many moving parts has been in the works for several months.

Thousands of people are expected to huddle downtown, around the stunning 66-foot Michigan-grown Norway spruce, for the 21-year-old official tree lighting ceremony.

“It looks like there’s going to be a lot of people here. We’re expecting 50,000,” Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington said. “Another day to have a good time. We know how to do it.”

Officials from the Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police released their security plan for the festivities expected to begin Friday evening from 4 p.m.

In 2023 it was great, no problem. But the same couldn’t be said of the previous year.

“The year before, there were a lot of teenagers, you know, running around, and we don’t mind that, but it’s more like unsupervised teenagers,” Detroit’s acting chief said, Todd Bettison.

Two shootings involving teenagers took place right next to the action in 2022. A 15-year-old was shot in the neck, another in the leg. The two shootings were linked.

Bettison says if there was one headline in their safety plan, it would be that no unaccompanied minors are allowed to attend the event. This represents those aged 17 and under.

“I ask parents to make sure you don’t just drop your kids off and actually go down and enjoy the festivities and watch over them,” Bettison said.

A long list of things not to bring was drawn up, the most important of which being no weapons of any kind, pets or drones. Navigation is simple compared to road closures in the greater Campus Martius area from Thursday to early Saturday morning.

“We ask for your patience, because as you see blocked streets now, there will be a lot of them at that time,” Washington said.

Additional police resources to combat crowds, but Detroiters won’t see a change in their services.

“We need to make sure that the neighborhoods are covered and that there are always adequate officers in the neighborhoods of our city so that these police raids are responded to, so I’m leaving no stone unturned, we’ve got everything covered,” Bettison said .