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With thousands of people about to descend on downtown Salt Lake City over the next three days to pay tribute to President Gordon B. Hinckley, police and church officials are getting ready. The official mourning period for President Hinckley will begin tomorrow.
The body of the Church president will lie in state for two days before Saturday's funeral.
With so many people wanting to pay tribute to President Hinckley at the Conference Center for the next three days, church officials and the Salt Lake City Police are gearing up for crowds that will be in the tens of thousands.
While the organists rehearse inside the Conference Center for Saturday's funeral for President Gordon B. Hinckley, the details of the funeral continue to be finalized.
The critical concern right now is managing the thousands of people who may plan to attend on Saturday. "We have several officers working overtime shifts: motorcycle officers, our public order unit; we'll have several officers from patrol. So, we will have a much larger presence in the downtown area," said Salt Lake Police Detective Jared Wihongi.
In addition to the crowds coming to pay their respects, the same group that protests at military funerals, the Westboro Baptist Church, is planning on showing up. Wihongi says it's their right to demonstrate, but he's warning funeral-goers not to let these people tick them off. "If people just do their thing and don't give them the audience they're looking for," he said.
President Hinckley will lie in state inside the Conference Center in the Hall of Prophets, where the busts of each of the Church presidents, from Joseph Smith to President Hinckley, line the windows. Workers are cleaning the room today, as church employees will be the first to file past the casket from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. tomorrow. The public will enter the Conference Center on the south side, be ushered inside, and then upstairs to the room. The number of actual tickets for the funeral that are available to the public still has not been announced.
Dignitaries attending include Mitt Romney, which means national media outlets will be here.
Church officials expect over the two days it is possible that 100,000 people could file past the casket.
The church is strongly encouraging anyone coming downtown to car pool or to use public transportation. TRAX and UTA will add more cars to the trains on Thursday and Friday and more trains on Saturday, before and after the funeral.
Parking areas that are typically open during General Conference, including the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Conference Center and Church Office Building will all be closed to the public during Saturday's funeral.
There are also 23 weddings scheduled at the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday, so parking will be hard to find.
