While most University of Wisconsin students have already put Halloween behind them until next year, city officials are just beginning to dissect and discuss the details of the successful event.
"This was really a complete effort in city government. … I actually had a good time this year," Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said. "I can't be prouder to be the mayor of the city of Madison right now."
According to Cieslewicz, ticket sales Saturday night generated $160,000 in revenue, which he said will greatly reduce the burden on taxpayers.
Madison Police Department Chief Noble Wray said the official number of arrests for the weekend was much lower than that of last year, but the type of arrests followed many of the same patterns.
He said of the 243 arrests, 195 were released right away and only three went to detox. Though the numbers are preliminary and only based on information obtained from those who received citations, Wray added that like years past, most of the arrests were not issued to UW-Madison students.
Wray also reported the majority of the 243 arrests were not for serious offenses — the top two charges were for unlawful possession of intoxicants: being on State Street with an open container of alcohol or underage drinking.
"This year, we made substantial improvement," he added. "We look at the reduction of the arrests as a success indicator."
And MPD Assistant Chief Randy Gaber, the incident commander for the event, said even the number of house parties was lower during Halloween weekend than during any other home football game weekend.
According to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, the only serious incident that occurred at a house party involved UW senior Forrest Florczak, who allegedly hit a guest at his party over the head with a golf club and later punched him in the face, breaking the victim's nose.
The UW Police Department reported another serious event outside of Union South Saturday night involving former UW football player Levonne Rowan, 23, and current UW football player Dywon Rowan. According to a release, a small group of males were engaged in a fight when UWPD arrived. Five of the suspects, including Levonne Rowan, fled in a vehicle, but they were stopped by officers.
Levonne Rowan was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, and Dywon Rowan has not been charged at this time.
But aside from a few isolated incidents, the lower number of arrests amounts to less money in fines for the city — something the mayor said does not disappoint him at all. In fact, Cieslewicz said he considers Halloween "good" for the city because the money made in fines was never something that crossed his mind.
"I have never wanted to say that this event is okay for the taxpayers simply because we get a lot of fine money. … I don't want kids being picked up for underage drinking — how is that responsible?" Cieslewicz asked. "I'm happy to say we're not going to get as much money in fines this year. … I don't want to raise money that way."
But Gaber said the progress of Halloween should not only be attributed to the changes made this year. He added it was successful because of changes that have been made since the first dangerous ending in 2002.
"What we tried to do in the command post as a department was balance allowing people to have a good time [with] protecting the safety of individuals, our officers and property … that's a fine line that we try to walk," Garber said.
Looking ahead, the mayor said there is "no question" the city will continue to fence off State Street and use the ticketing policy. He added the crowd of 35,000 was a comfortable number, and the goal for next year will be to further decrease the number of out-of-town visitors.
"I think there was a small amount of … people who came to Madison clearly to either provoke or witness a riot, and they left disappointed," Cieslewicz said. "And I want them to stay disappointed, and I want them to stay away."
