WATERLOO — When it comes to reducing the crowds gathered at the annual Ezra Avenue street party for St. Patrick's Day, it appears authorities have few new ideas.

They will blanket the area with police officers as they did last year in an attempt to contain, but not shrink, the March 17 party that now stretches into surrounding neighbourhoods.

"Our overall approach is community safety, high-visible police enforcement, deterring unlawful activity and providing an efficient police response," said Staff Sgt. Jamie Sheridan, major event planner with Waterloo Regional Police.

In addition to local officers, police with Peel Regional Police will be on Ezra as they were last year.

"From an enforcement perspective, we are treating this event as no different than any other day in the Region of Waterloo," he said.

Sheridan said officers will take action and "will be watching for offences and unlawful activity taking place."

On that day, police aim to contain the crowd, not reduce it, he said. That's a goal for the City of Waterloo's task force looking at how to put an end the event.

"Our operations are not geared toward decreasing or restricting the size of the crowds," Sheridan said.

Last year, 22,400 gathered on the street, but that estimate didn't include the crowds walking along King Street or the partygoers at houses in adjacent neighbourhoods, said Wilfrid Laurier University's vice-president of student affairs David McMurray.

The crowd this year could easily surpass 25,000, worrying authorities who feel exasperated by the unsanctioned street party.

For the city, the universities, police and others monitoring the party, the real concern is estimating how many students will come to the region from other universities and high schools.

Officials will knock on doors in the neighbourhoods around Ezra on Wednesday with a message of safety and respect for others.

Being on Ezra for St. Patrick's Day has become a bucket list event where students want to be seen and have selfies taken, Murray said.

"The university discourages it very strongly, but that hasn't had any effect on whether they are going to make an appearance or not," he said.

Last year, busloads of students arrived in Waterloo. Police stopped cars on roads, many filled with students destined for Ezra.

"It's a real challenge now that we have such strong interest coming from outside the community," McMurray said.

This year, St. Patrick's Day is on a Sunday at the end of March break.

"We'll see the cars coming in on Friday. Walk through the surrounding neighbourhoods and you'll see a significant number of parked cars on streets," said McMurray, who hosted a meeting with other universities last month to address the growing crowds at St. Patrick's Day celebrations near campuses.

Laurier is spending $200,000 to have extra security on campus for the weekend. Police spent more than $300,000 enforcing the event last year.

In 2018, police laid 648 charges with 440 of them related to alcohol.

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Laurier says more than three-quarters of those charges involved students who didn't attend the school.

Shayne Turner, Waterloo's director of municipal enforcement, said the operational plan to manage the crowds on Ezra and the neighbourhoods is "solid."

"We are confident in it," he said. "It's about public safety and holding those accountable who do step above the law."

Last week at city council, politicians voted to ask the province for more power to change bylaws, allowing bylaw officers to ask for identification and connecting unpaid fines to the renewal of driver's licences.

Waterloo is carrying an estimated $330,000 in unpaid bylaw infractions. Some of this is owed by people ticketed by bylaw officers for unlawful behaviour.

"We collect on some of the fines, but we don't collect on all of the fines," he said.

Turner acknowledged that the fines could be more effective. Some property bylaws were amended this year and will be used for the first time since homecoming.

The amendments allow bylaw officers to declare an emergency when people are partying on buildings such as garage rooftops, or there are excessive crowds on decks.

Waterloo will also have additional bylaw officers working on Sunday in a partnership with the City of Kitchener.

lmonteiro@therecord.com

Twitter: @MonteiroRecord

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