Work continues to find solutions to unsanctioned university street parties

The total numbers are in, and now work is underway to come up with a solution to the unsanctioned street parties in Waterloo’s university district.

The Waterloo Regional Police Services (WRPS) Board was presented the final report from St. Patrick’s Day 2025, which put the overall price tag of policing the weekend at $308,800 — about $8,000 less than last year.

Brenna Bonn, WRPS Superintendent, presented the data to the board.

“We laid 254 charges, compared to 257 in 2024. And, we had 17 arrests which is seven more than last year.”

Bonn said the final cost also included overtime and on-duty salaries as well as planning and analysis costs and logistics.

While there were a few small parties over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the largest party happened on the Saturday, March 15.

Bonn detailed how the massive party developed.

“By 4:30 p.m. we were in fully operational mode. This was the heaviest density of the crowd that extended on Marshall Street from King, right down to Weber streets this year.”

At its peak, Bonn said the estimated crowd size was around 20,000 individuals. Yet, there were no significant injuries or major damage to property.

The City of Waterloo had obtained a court injunction prior to that weekend, giving police and bylaw officers stronger powers to deal with the parties.

While there are anecdotal reports of students skipping the parties because of the injunction, it clearly failed to prevent the parties from happening.

WRPS Board chair, Ian McLean, said he’s hearing from residents who are exasperated with the parties and want to see them come to an end. He wondered if it was time for the schools to take on some of the responsibility.

“Folks are saying, why don’t they just change reading week so it’s over St. Paddy’s Day. A lot of the students would be elsewhere if they had reading week that week. Or, change exam periods.”

McLean went so far as to suggest perhaps the students, through the schools, should be shouldering the financial burden, if they feel they can’t live without these parties.

WRPS Chief, Mark Crowell told the board, his officers are committed to finding a solution.

“We will continue to work with the participating agencies. We will come back to the board to provide you with a roadmap into future deployments.”