No major incidents reported during FoCo festivities: London police

There were no reports of any serious injuries during Saturday’s fake homecoming celebrations, or FoCo, near Western University, police say.

London police are expected to release more details about the event on Monday, but reports on Saturday evening suggested that at least 50 people were assessed by paramedics and 19 were taken to hospital.

More than 20,000 people descended on Broughdale Avenue for the celebrations. Officers even closed a stretch of Richmond Street near the university gates for a few hours Saturday.

Coun. Phil Squire, who was part of the cleanup efforts on Sunday, says it appears students behaved better this year.

“The crowd was much more manageable than it had been in previous years. In terms of their behaviour, they were much less destructive than I’ve seen in previous years, much less intoxication and much less open alcohol on the street,” said Squire, adding that he had nothing but positive interactions with students on Saturday.

Squire credits officials at the university for getting the message to students and says a tougher nuisance party bylaw — plus a new agreement between the police and the university to hold troublemakers accountable — helped keep things under control.

“There was a massive effort by the university that I give them a lot of credit for, for creating an education program where students were told that if they were going to participate or party in this event that they should do so responsibly and that there’s implications for what they did, and I think that message got through,” said Squire.

“There were a lot of positives this year. Police were in the position on the street to use our new nuisance bylaw to shut down parties on the street that were getting out of control, and I think that contributed greatly.”

In August, London city council voted to amend London’s public nuisance bylaw to crack down on unsanctioned parties.

With the added rules, party-starters will now be responsible for bringing the party to an end. If the city has to step in bring the nuisance to an end, the party-starter will have to cover the cost of any city services deployed.

On top of that, those responsible for the nuisance party will also have to pay an hourly rate for the presence of any emergency services or municipal law enforcement officers who are brought to the scene.

During the 2018 FoCo celebrations, 57 were sent to hospital and an estimated one in four people sustained injuries.