VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver’s Gastown is increasingly becoming a weekend party scene, according to police, who continue to send more officers to keep it under control.

That’s leading to rising police costs.

While the scene is not on par with the Granville Entertainment District, police note the number of liquor seats in Gastown’s has gone up by about 25 per cent compared to a few years ago.

Constable Brian Montague says that means more alcohol-fueled fights and other problems. “We try and prevent those individuals that we think are going to cause problems from causing those problems in the first place. We want to be more proactive than reactive, of course.”

Police have so far this year gone over its liquor callout budget by $90,000, and the department says that’s due to what it calls the “growing disorder” in Gastown.

“As long as the number of people continue to increase, we’d obviously like to continue to increase our police presence down there to deal with the problems that do arise,” says Montague.

The local business improvement society declined to comment.