About the Blog:

Guelph Politico is locally sourced and dedicated to covering the political and cultural scene in the City of Guelph. Est. 2008.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

First Week of Safe Semester (Mostly) an Improvement Over Last

The Guelph Police Service has released the statistics from the first weekend of this year's Safe Semester program. By and large they show an improvement over last, but some of you just can't stop yourselves from parking where you shouldn't, or peeing where you shouldn't.

Looking at this year's stats over last, there's been some definite improvement in several areas. Noise complaints, open liquor, fake IDs and public drunkedness were all down this first weekend of 2016 over 2015. Meanwhile, impaired driving and public urination arrests each ticked up by one, and while the number of parking tickets issued was down on the closed streets, the number of cars towed from those areas went up. Here are the numbers: 

CHARGES                                                                    2016  2015
Impaired/over 80 arrests                                                  12      11
Public intoxication arrests                                               15      18
Open liquor tickets                                                           26      49
Public urination tickets                                                    15      14
Noise complaint tickets                                                     2        4
Total noise complaints                                                     95    113
Presenting as evidence of age documentation              6      18
Parking tickets downtown, no parking area                  34      50
Vehicles towed from downtown no parking area         17      12

Guelph Police attribute the improved numbers to a campaign of proactive education, going into residences with by-law and University of Guelph Off Campus to educate students about the risks and responsibilities of partying.
Project Safe Semester is a collaboration involving the City of Guelph, Guelph Police Service, Guelph By-Law Enforcement, Guelph Fire Department, Downtown Guelph Business Association, Alcohol and Gaming Commission Of Ontario-Investigation and Enforcement Bureau, Guelph Transit, Public Works, various other City Departments, Guelph-Wellington Emergency Services, Central Students Association and the University of Guelph. These stakeholders have teamed up to address the late night issues in the downtown core and in residential neighbourhoods which have a high concentration of student housing. Safe Semester runs until October 2, 2016.

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