The Madison Police Department released details Wednesday of the high cost and increased number of arrests at last year’s Mifflin Street Block Party.
The 2012 block party included more house parties outside the Mifflin Street area and an increase in police presence, resulting in more overtime and benefits costs for MPD staff, the report said.
According to the report, the 2012 Mifflin Street Block Party cost roughly $196,000, almost double what the same event cost three years earlier.
City Food and Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf said this cost is “not a sustainable model.”
“We had to increase enforcement to ensure the safety of people in the [Mifflin] area, but that comes at an extreme cost to the city,” Woulf said.
Woulf added the city is not planning to add any new enforcement policies during this year’s block party.
However, the increase in house parties outside the Mifflin area, notably the Langdon Street area and residential areas south of Regent and Park Streets, could mean MPD places officers in a broader area around the city during the 2013 block party.
Though the report said crimes such as battery, robbery and sexual assault significantly decreased from 2011, the 2012 block party also saw a sharp increase in arrests. MPD had arrested 256 individuals by 4 p.m, compared to the 14 they arrested by the same time in 2011.
Only 103 of the 398 total arrests were UW-Madison students, according to the report.
Like other city officials in the past year, including MPD Chief Noble Wray in July, the report emphasized moving Mifflin away from its “singular and unabashed focus on alcohol.”
The report called on support from city and university officials as well as student-led efforts to minimize the over-consumption of alcohol.
“There is still more to be done to assure that the Mifflin Street Block Party as it has been known does not occur in the future,” the report said.
