With expectations that this years Halloween crowd will exceed the 65,000 people who jammed State Street last year, the Madison Police Department plans to assign more than 200 police officers to the downtown area over the course of this year's Halloween week.
The staffing plan was presented by police officials before the Madison Public Safety Review Board Tuesday.
Although Oct. 31 was declared by the police as the major celebration day, Madison Police Captain Richard Bach called Halloween \a guessing game"" as to which night the festivities will take place.
The department will have extra officers on duty the weekend before and the weekend after, with approximately 140 officers on duty Halloween night.
While referring to last year's crowd as ""polite,"" Madison Police Captain George Silverwood said he felt more officers were necessary this year.
""Clearly, there were times last year when we felt we didn't have enough officers,"" he said.
Silverwood said he attributed this feeling to the traffic problems due to road blocks as well as ""crowd surges"" over which officers rarely have control.
Many out-of-town visitors are expected to visit Madison the weekend prior to Halloween, according to Silverwood. That weekend, police will add five overtime officers and relocate about 40 officers to the downtown area.
Due to anonymous posters designating Nov. 2 as the night for celebrating, Silverwood said about 50 officers will be assigned to the downtown area, including approximately 20 overtime officers.
Silverwood and Bach estimated the total cost of Halloween staffing at nearly $85,000, with approximately $25,000 due to officers working overtime.
Police officials plan to shuffle as many officers as they can to save on overtime by changing officers' regular schedules and relocating them to State Street, said Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.
""While it is a somewhat expensive proposition, this is something the police department plans for,"" he said.
