WATERLOO — Waterloo Regional Police laid 604 charges during the St. Patrick's Day weekend bash on Ezra Avenue.

They laid 512 charges on the Sunday, which was St. Patrick's Day. The majority of them — 374 — were liquor licence offences. Police made 18 arrests on Sunday.

On Saturday, they laid 92 charges — with 53 of them being Highway Traffic Act offences — and arrested four people.

A final report on the charges will be presented to the Waterloo Regional Police Services Board on Wednesday.

The crowd for the annual St. Patrick's Day party on Ezra Avenue was the biggest ever, with 33,000 people squeezing into the area at its peak.

"The density of the crowd along the majority of Ezra Avenue and Clayfield Avenue was a significant public safety," police said in the report.

Last year, there were 22,400 partygoers on Ezra Avenue.

Police said the cost of dealing with the event this year totalled $286,400. About $152,000 was for overtime costs, $25,100 was for other salaries, $40,000 was for Peel Regional Police officers who helped on Sunday, $64,700 was for planning and analysis, and $4,600 was for logistics.

Last year, total costs were $330,000.

Police said costs were lower this year because in 2018 they spent $38,000 to purchase additional radio equipment for officers.

Auxiliary officers also helped at the event. They put in 81 shifts and 380 hours of volunteer time.

Police say they are concerned with how fast the party on Ezra is growing.

"The level of risk for this event continues to increase as crowd sizes grow annually in the range of 40-50 per cent," the report said.

"The significant increase in crowd density experienced in 2019 also poses a substantial public safety risk," it said.

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