Message of safety and respect aimed at students ahead of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations
Posted Mar 9, 2017 07:31:47 AM.
Last Updated Mar 17, 2017 05:14:30 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The planning for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations have been going on for months.
Waterloo Regional Police along with Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Waterloo, the university’s student unions, Waterloo Fire, EMS and the City of Waterloo are all a part of the planning process.
These are the groups tasked with keeping the thousands of intoxicated students safe for the daylong celebration.
The message for students this year is “Be Smart. Stay Safe. Show Respect.”
The party typically converges on Ezra Street in Waterloo near Wilfrid Laurier University and is completely unsanctioned by any organization.
In past years, estimated crowds of 5,000 people gathered on Ezra.
Despite the high number of students, and their level of intoxication, there have been few major incidents. Last year’s celebrations had no major incidents. Most police calls were helping EMS with party goers who drank too much.
Regional Police Inspector Craig Ambrose tells 570 NEWS a big part of the day’s success comes from getting the message out to students.
” The big message is stay safe and be respectful, a big part of that is door knocker campaign where university students, bylaw police fire will go door to door and send a message of respect, respect for your neighbours, respect for people in the city, respect for community partners and stay safe.” Said Ambrose.
Ambrose says they don’t have a fixed number of officers who will be on the ground on March 17th, but they are planning for a big turnout.
He also says police are working with by-law to identify a few problem residences so they don’t get out of hand, and they have teams put in place to deal with party’s that are illegally selling alcohol.
The Laurier Students Union released the following video on being a good neighbour:
