Preliminary estimates of police costs for Halloween weekend, which ended late Saturday night with police breaking up a crowd of 5,000 on the 500 block of State Street, show that the total cost of unbudgeted expenses will exceed $101,000.
Before Halloween, police anticipated they would spend $35,000 on overtime staffing for the weekend. Based on overtime slips submitted as of last Friday, the three nights of police presence downtown actually cost nearly $96,000 to staff.
Included in that number is $53,437 in overtime costs, more than $27,000 in unplanned police holdover and calling police in early, and more than $8,000 in double-time pay, primarily for Saturday.
“The police explained to us that there are three reasons for these higher costs. One is the event went longer than anticipated, so police had to stay,” said Melanie Conklin, spokeswoman for Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. “The other thing was the event was diffused through a broader area than originally anticipated. Police said there was actually a traffic gridlock along the isthmus and a number of house parties on Mifflin and Langdon and a number of other streets. And then there was just the fact that there were a number of calls throughout the city for unrelated issued that had to be dealt with, so police had to stay around longer.”
Police said they also spent $5,905 to replace damaged goods and supplies, which include accoutrements like pepper spray, according to City Council President Mike Verveer.
Of the total $95,918 in staffing costs, however, police said $29,260 would be paid as comp or vacation time, leaving the paid cost of the weekend at $72,563.
Last Halloween’s riots cost the police department $66,226 in unbudgeted expenses when police used tear gas to end a riot of around 65,000 revelers, according to Verveer. This means that they will be spending about $6,000 more than last year in overtime costs already.
“After several months of planning and juggling officers’ schedules, the city saved tens of thousands of dollars, considering there were so many more officers on the street,” Verveer said.
Seven businesses had multiple broken windows, and two trees were uprooted before police wearing protective gear sprayed “body-slamming” revelers with pepper spray around 3 a.m. Sunday morning on the 500 block of State Street near State Street Brats.
According to police, final costs will be determined Nov. 18, when the payroll for the period is officially totaled.
“From the mayor’s point of view, he was disappointed at the higher costs … but looking at the big picture, it was better to spend a little more and have the police protection,” Conklin said.
The budget for ambulance calls, however, came in $1,000 under budget, Conklin said.