Spring is just around the corner and so is St. Patrick’s Day.
And members of Kingston police liaison team have been pounding the pavement in the city’s university district in advance of what is typically a busy weekend for police, bylaw and emergency services.
“A big part of what we’re doing is just to provide the information to, like I said, citizens, students or people that live in the area about the legislation surrounding street gatherings or partying,” said Staff Sgt. Carla Stacey.
Over the past few years, mass street takeovers that tend to happen in the university district at Homecoming and St. Patrick’s Day have caused headaches for the city and its police service.
Last year, on St. Patrick’s Day alone, Kingston police spent $140,000 on law enforcement for the weekend.
The city’s bylaw enforcement will also be out this weekend, enforcing the terms of the city’s University District Safety Initiative.
Steve Mothersell, the City of Kingston’s supervisor of bylaw enforcement, said the biggest focus isn’t necessarily on punishment.
“When our officers are responding, we certainly want to make sure we’re educating folks on the bylaws, what their current violation is, and then if we’re going to charges, we educate those individuals on exactly what those charges are, what it entails,” he said.
For students, the increased police presence has put a bit of a damper on the parties.
“It’s like, what, once a year, twice a year that something like this happens,” said second-year student Fasil Andualem. “I feel like there’s a need for police presence but probably not as strong if people want to drink in their house.”
Third-year student Jon Toker said, “In the first semester, even aside from St. Paddy’s, there was a ton of police presence just when it was nice outside and there was house parties going on and it really kind of threatens us to not have parties even if they’re just normal, small gatherings.”
Despite this, the students said they don’t expect things will get too crazy this weekend.
“I think it’s going to be pretty relaxed. I think it’s going to be like not much more than HoCo was this year, which I feel like was very toned down from my first year experience. So, I’m not expecting too much,” Andualem said.
“I expect it to just be a lot of fun. I’m not associated with the antics,” added third-year student Ben Greenberg.