Between Sunday and Thursday, 154 people were arrested for DNC-related disturbances. For perspective, consider that, on an average day in Denver, about 110 people are arrested.

Denver received $50 million in federal tax dollars to spend on security for the convention. Protest groups have questioned why all that money was needed.

"You have to prepare for the worst sometimes and hope for the best," said Denver Police Lt. Ron Saunier. "I think we got the best out of this."

The only large-scale clash came Monday night when police moved to block a group of activists from going downtown from Civic Center Park. An anarchist website had encouraged activists to disrupt DNC parties and fundraisers that night.

"That particular group wasn't here to express any First Amendment rights. They were here to kind of wreak havoc and cause some damage downtown and that's why we took the swift action," Saunier said.

Nearly 100 people were arrested that night after police used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of hundreds. At least 100 more were detained for more than an hour and were released. One of those people was Recreate 68 organizer Mark Cohen.

"I was calling my wife and telling her I think I'm going to be arrested," Cohen said. "I saw a line of police three deep and we saw all of them putting on gas masks."

Many in the crowd yelled that police were about to use tear gas. They did not. Saunier says he is not aware of any discussions about using tear gas that night, but officers were certainly prepared.

Cohen said the detention was illegal and some activists are considering legal action against the city.

"Other than the one main instance, we didn't have too many problems," said Saunier, in part, crediting the protest groups for keeping the peace.

"You've got to throw a lot to the groups themselves that made it happen this way," Saunier said.

Protest groups, many of them urging Democrats to end the war in Iraq, were given wide latitude to march in the streets, even those groups which didn't go through the city's parade permit process.

"We were told by the courts and by the police that we could not march to the Pepsi Center, and lo and behold, there we were at the Pepsi Center," Cohen said in reference to an anti-war march on Sunday.

"We were very pleased about it," Cohen said.

Saunier acknowledged the police ignored some violations in order to avoid exacerbating tensions.

"Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor," he said.