INSTITUTE INDEX: The party conventions' extraordinary security

Date on which the Democratic National Convention gets underway in Charlotte, N.C.: 9/3/2012

Amount in federal funds the city will spend on security for the gathering, which is expected to draw 6,000 delegates and 30,000 visitors: $50 million

Number of officers the money will be used to hire from outside departments: 3,400

Miles of nine-foot-tall "anti-scale" fencing the funds will be used to purchase: about 5

Miles of concrete barriers the Secret Service has requested for the event: 2

Date on which the Charlotte City Council, in anticipation of the convention, passed a law giving the city manager power to declare an "extraordinary event," designating a section of the city where police have broad powers to search and arrest people carrying potential weapons, projectiles or other items including permanent markers, coolers, and backpacks: 1/23/2012

Date on which Charlotte-based Duke Energy held its annual shareholders meeting, among the gatherings that have already been declared "extraordinary events": 5/3/2012

Date on which Charlotte-based Bank of America held its annual shareholders meeting, another officially declared "extraordinary event": 5/9/2012

Number of national groups involved in "The Coalition to March on Wall Street South," a reference to Charlotte's position as the second-largest U.S. financial center following New York, that's planning to peacefully protest at the convention: 80

Estimated number of churches that will gather the evening before the convention officially opens inside Charlotte's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater for a service organized by anti-gay rights and anti-abortion activists: 40

Percent of Charlotte's Uptown commercial district that will be inside the DNC's "extraordinary event" perimeters: 60

Amount of federal money the Republicans received for their convention in Tampa, Fla., which begins Aug. 27: $50 million

Rank of that event among the largest maritime security efforts the Tampa area has ever undertaken: 1

Number of officers who will be patrolling channels and waterways in the downtown area at any given time in boats mounted with with automatic machine guns: 150

Number of organizations that have endorsed the March on the RNC, a protest set for Aug. 27: over 60

Number of people expected to occupy pink tents inside a protest camp on leased land in downtown Tampa dubbed "Romneyville," which the city has been trying to evict -- unsuccessfully so far: 300

(Click on figure to go to source.)