Will Richmond have to shell out another $570,000 if supporters of Confederate statues come back in six weeks to hold another rally in Richmond?

Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham is keeping mum about his plans for dealing with a return visit Saturday, Dec. 9, from members of the Tennessee-based CSA II: The New Confederate States of America, who have vowed to show up for a second rally at the statue of Confederate Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue.

Chief Durham did not respond to a request for comment.

The police department’s overtime budget was strained by the first rally held on Monument Avenue on Sept. 16.

Uncertain of the numbers of people and counterprotesters who would attend, and armed with a directive to prevent the kind of bloodshed Charlottesville experienced at a August rally over their Confederate statues, Chief Durham deployed 475 off-duty Richmond officers to provide crowd control at the statue and in other parts of the city.

The disclosure, provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, indicates the chief essentially called in almost everyone who was not scheduled to work.

The department has an authorized strength of 750 sworn officers, with about 710 officers available because of vacancies and officers on leave for a variety of reasons.

The city’s police force was supplemented with untold numbers of State Police troopers and officers from the Capitol Police, Virginia Commonwealth University Police, sheriff’s deputies and officers from Henrico County and other departments. Based on food purchases, the number of officers could have totaled between 1,000 and 1,400 who were on the scene.

What is clear, authorities vastly outnumbered the six pro-statue demonstrators who showed up, as well as the few hundred counterprotesters who turned out to rally against the racial bigotry and hate they believe the neo-Confederate group and the statues symbolize.

The average hourly cost of overtime for the Richmond force alone amounted to about $20,600. That’s based on the average overtime pay of $43.56 an hour.

On Friday, Sept. 15, the day before the rally, the department’s information shows that Chief Durham deployed 204 officers to provide security at the Monument Avenue site in case some pro-Confederates sought to conduct an early torchlight rally as they did in Charlottesville. Officers also notified residents of street closings and assisted workers setting up barriers and fencing at the Monument Avenue site.

On Sunday, Sept. 17, according to the records, 16 officers were paid overtime to keep an eye on the area just in case demonstrators cropped up unexpectedly.

Overall, the chief spent about $250,000 on overtime pay, including pay for a small group of officers who began shortly after the deadly Aug. 12 Charlottesville rally to work on plans to handle events in Richmond.

Along with manpower spending, the department separately reported spending about $250,000 on equipment and other items ahead of the rally. Those costs included $15,000 for fencing around the Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center on the Boulevard, which was used as a staging center for police.

One surprise in the report is the police department’s decision to spend city tax dollars for food primarily from Henrico County businesses. That includes $6,000 spent with Mission BBQ on Glenside Drive to provide lunch boxes for 1,400 officers; $2,633 to buy breakfast items, bagels and snacks from Wegmans supermarket in Short Pump; $3,818 spent with Sam’s Club on West Broad Street for items mostly related to coffee; $822 spent with Chick-fil-A at Willow Lawn for 250 chicken sandwiches.

The department also favored a national chain over locally owned businesses when it spent $371 buying 50 pizzas from Papa John’s Pizza.

The only Richmond-based operation to benefit from the nearly $18,000 spent on food and related items was the nonprofit FeedMore, which received $4,196 for preparing 1,000 dinners at its community kitchen for those on duty.

Most of the money was spent buying a wide range of equipment for which the department had not budgeted. That includes three laser printers, eight high-definition camcorders, specialty jerseys for the SWAT team, a license plate reader, 50 gas mask kits, 75 radio earpieces and 75 body cameras.

The body cameras, purchased from a State Police supplier, cost $84,280, while the license plate reader was $53,600 and the radio earpieces cost $24,358.

Meanwhile, other city departments collectively spent about $70,000 on overtime and equipment.

The full city cost of $570,000 is just part of the spending. Capitol Police, for example, reported spending nearly $5,000, mostly on overtime, while Henrico County tabulated $64,735 in costs for supporting the Richmond Police Department, including about $58,000 spent on officer overtime.