Waterloo Regional Police say it cost $308K to enforce St. Patrick’s Day street party

Partiers filled Marshall Street in Waterloo for St. Patrick's Day festivities, March 15, 2025 (Krista Simpson/CTV News).

The Waterloo Regional Police Service is sharing new details about their efforts to patrol this year’s unsanctioned St. Patrick’s Day street party.

An operational report was presented Wednesday to the Police Service Board. A copy was also published online ahead of the meeting.

According to Waterloo Regional Police, approximately 20,000 revellers gathered at the party’s peak, despite a court injunction that gave officers the power to arrest and criminally charge anyone deemed to be a nuisance.

“The hope was that the injunction and unified messaging from the City of Waterloo, Waterloo Regional Police and other stakeholders would serve as a deterrent to the attendees,” WRPS Superintendent Brenna Bonn said during Wednesday’s presentation.

“Individuals chose to ignore the injunction, and in social media posts what we found was some took it as a challenge or an invitation to attend the unsanctioned event.”

Police said Saturday, March 15 began with small gatherings on private properties.

“However, shortly before 3 p.m., a large crowd was observed descending onto the roadway on Marshall Street in what appeared to be a planned, coordinated takeover of the street,” the report read. “Enforcement efforts by our members transitioned to crowd management and public safety efforts as officers were forced to close access to multiple streets to oncoming traffic.”

Police said the crowd was spread over such a large area that officers struggled to keep up.

“One of our first operational responsibilities is to close the street to ensure no one is struck by a vehicle,” Bonn explained. “This year we ran out of archer barriers. We didn’t have enough due to the size of the street stretching from Marshall and King all the way down to Weber Street. There were additional access and egress that we had to put cruisers at and staff with police officers which then decreased the number of resources that we had.”

Police said they used a Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD or loudspeaker) at 6:30 p.m., asking the crowd to disperse.

No significant injuries or damage was reported during the event.

Charges

While the court injunction didn’t stop parties over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, police believe it did discourage bad behaviour.

Only one person was charged under the authority of the court injunction over the four-day enforcement period. They were charged with disobeying a court order, as well as assault.

Four separate post-bar altercations were also reported to police.

All five incidents happened after the crowd was cleared from Marshall Street.

In total, police said they laid 254 charges over the course of the weekend:

• Liquor Licence Act – 35
• Highway Traffic Act – 168
• Criminal Code/CDSA – 25
• Cannabis Control Act – 5
• Other - 21

They also provided a breakdown of the charges by post-secondary school:

• Wilfrid Laurier University – 11
• University of Guelph – 5
• Conestoga College – 4
• McMaster University – 3
• University of Waterloo – 2

A total of 17 arrests were made over the weekend, compared to the 10 in 2024.

Police said more charges are possible.

“We continue to analyze footage from the various cameras that may result in additional charges being laid,” the report said.

Overall, the number of charges slightly increased year-over-year, with 257 in 2024 compared to 254 in 2025.

The biggest change was the number of complaint calls, from 71 in 2024 to 108 in 2025.

Enforcement costs

The report also addressed the financial cost of enforcing the unsanctioned street party, including the required planning, logistics, salaries and overtime.

In total, Waterloo Regional Police said the 2025 event cost them $308,800.

“These costs are not specific to the unsanctioned street gathering but reflect costs associated with policing the entire major event perimeter within the university district,” the report said. “These costs decreased by approximately $8,200 from 2024. This decrease is in due, in part, to only a single day of assistance from the OPP. Additionally, some initial cost relating to the CCTV equipment in 2024 was not required in 2025.”

There were other costs, police cautioned, not accounted for in their report.

“Even our reported costs of just over $300,000 is just scratching the surface on the total costs incurred on the Region of Waterloo and WRPS,” Chief Mark Crowell said. “Having the [Ontario Provincial Police] deployed in our jurisdiction is not a calculated cost. Ramping up additions to our in-year deployment would have other considerations. There are extra considerations for maintaining an acceptable level of public safety across the Region of Waterloo when these mass deployment are occurring.”

In an email to CTV News, a city spokesperson confirmed the application for the St. Patrick’s Day injunction was handled by the city’s in-house legal counsel, with no additional costs incurred.

The St. Patrick’s Day Operational Report will be presented to the board on Wednesday.

Municipal enforcement

Bylaw officers with the City of Waterloo also kept a close eye on the unsanctioned parties.

They told CTV News they responded to 129 calls for noise, nuisance and property complaints between 5 p.m. on March 15 and 7 a.m. on March 18.

During that period, a total of 54 tickets were handed out.

Moving forward

Police were also asked Wednesday’s meeting what next steps could be taken to mitigate the impact, and if universities and colleges need to be held to higher account for the gatherings.

“Status quo is not acceptable from a resource, cost and strain perspective,” Crowell replied.

“We have exhausted previous recommendations, and I think your challenge and your concerns about what new solutions, what new levels of intervention need to be on the table and who needs to be driving those conversations is an open conversation. We will continue to work with the participating agencies, we will come back to the [Waterloo Regional Police Services Board] with a roadmap into future deployments.”

The police chief also noted there were many ideas on the table that need to be carefully considered.

“Every year brings different elements to consider. It could be the calendar itself, it could be the weather, it could be what’s happening in other jurisdictions. We’re still seeing trends develop post-pandemic where we went from two years of no activity to now, what we’ve reported on today.”

Crowell could not say for sure if police would ask the city to seek another injunction in 2026.