Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day is finally here.

While this is a de facto celebratory holiday for most students, the police will be out in full force to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

Eight agencies will be taking an active role in making sure that disruptive, disorderly and illegal activity will be addressed, according to the Facebook page “Official Public Safety Page on Unofficial.” These agencies, which span multiple jurisdictions, will have a combination of uniformed police officers and plain-clothes officers on duty from Friday morning into the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Champaign Police Department Sgt. Scott Friedlein said that police stationed on the streets and on the Quad will have an affect on the crime.

“High visibility does have an impact. There will be a significant number of police officers,” Friedlein said. “We’re going to be aggressive.”

There will be street sweep teams, which consists of two officers from multi-jurisdictions, working during the event. They will primarily be responsible for street level activities. The party enforcement teams will specifically deal with problematic parties.

In addition, University Police Department Lt. Skip Frost said the police would be assisted by a private security staff from the Assembly Hall for large lecture halls. This is to put an emphasis in the classrooms.

“We have made great strides, and we’ve had very limited disruptions in the academic setting (in the past few years),” Frost said. “Fewer and fewer teaching assistants (and) professors are cancelling classes for this day.”

This year, the tentative plan is nothing new, but the plan “represents all the things (the police) have learned (throughout the history of this event),” according to Frost.

Unwelcomed guests

Representatives from both the Champaign and University Police Departments have stressed, during a press conference, that University students are usually not the biggest problem for law enforcement.

Friedlein said that local students are more concerned about the campus than students who have no affiliation with the University.

“Typically, our own students are not the biggest issue. (They) usually are well behaved,” he said. “It’s the influence from outside; the people that don’t have the level of concern and consideration for our community. That creates the problem for us.”

Last year’s arrest data shows that individuals were arrested from 56 different institutions spanning 12 states.

Champaign Mayor and Liquor Commissioner Jerry Schweighart said he would not mind if it was only a local celebration within the campus.

“It’s when you advertise and bring in people from outside schools that have no concern for the destruction they might do to our campus,” Schweighart added.

All University Housing dorms and some Private Certified Housing halls have enacted a no-guest policy specifically for this weekend to control the guest list. Students may be forced to pay a fine if students are found in violation the rule.

From bars to apartments

Throughout the day, fraternities and sororities are banned from hosting a party at their chapter houses. Furthermore, any private parties where the host is charging admission, charging for cups or wristbands is considered to be operating as illegal liquor establishments.

Champaign Police Department Lt. Brad Yohnka said the Champaign Police Department has “solicited a partnership” with apartment owners.

“They’re eyes and ears. They’re going to have employees on their sites all day long. That partnership is going to be helpful,” Yohnka said. “This event has moved out of the bars and into the apartment complexes.”

He added that the bars are no longer promoting it as heavily as in the past, which has put the emphasis on private parties.

“(Before), there was binge drinking promoted in the establishments. We don’t have those issues with the bars because they’re pretty well regulated,” Yohnka said.

One area of focus in the apartments will be the balconies. There were nine arrests for balcony violations, including throwing items off the balcony, last year compared to only one in 2009.

“The host is responsible. They will be ticketed (for $215) for the conduct of their guests,” Friedlein said. “We don’t have to show who did it, we just have to prove it came from their balcony.”

When asked about undercover students entering private parties and assisting the police department, Friedlein said that they will “use a number of resources from a number of different areas” to make sure basic regulations, such as possession of only one keg, are not being violated.

Local organization assists police

Community Elements, a major mental health center in Champaign County, will play an integral role in financing the law enforcement for this event. It will pitch in about $15,000 from a federal grant they have received.

Melissa Kearns, Community Prevention Coordinator at Community Elements, said they have collaborated with the police to “make sure their job is as simple as possible.”

“We worked really hard to make sure that the police officers have the materials they need, equipment they need. We’ve used our grant in any capacity in we can,” Kearns said.

Last year, over $10,000 was spent on officers who worked 252 overtime hours, according to the Champaign Police Department.

“This type of an event can’t be done just with law enforcement, Community Elements has played an important role in getting the word out,” Friedlein said. “They were out today (March 1) going around business to business hanging flyers.

“Our position is the more we educate the students up front, the better choices hopefully they will make.”