Police Prep to Avoid St. Patrick's Day Repeat

With 80-degree weather, plenty of booze and some serious cases of spring fever, police say last year’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration was “a perfect storm.”

But this year, they’re making sure it doesn’t happen again.

Both Chicago Police and Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) are keeping tabs on this year’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration, taking extra precautions to ensure street closures and dangerous fights are avoided.

Police shut down Clark Street in Wrigleyville around 4 p.m. during the festivities in 2012, but this year 19th District Sgt. Jason Clark says they’re bringing in more manpower.

“It was a perfect storm of events that led up to St. Patty’s Day,” Clark said. “… It’s never been like that on St. Patty’s day around here, but with crowds that large—we just didn’t expect that. This year we’re taking more of an offensive approach. We’ll have more officers assigned to the entertainment area, and there won’t be parking allowed on the street.”

Tunney says, as far as he knows, there are no plans to shut down Clark Street during the holiday, and police only made the decision in 2012 after seeing how much bar activity was overflowing onto the streets.

"The Clark Street entertainment area is one of the most popular entertainment areas in the city now. We’re the new Division Street..."

“(Police) are the ones that make the call, and I don’t mean to belittle the success of the holiday in regards to the bars, but public safety is paramount,” Tunney said. “We’re well aware of what happened last year, and we have a contingency plan regardless of weather.”

That includes putting more officers at the scene to avoid another block party, just like they normally would do during New Year’s Eve or a Chicago Cubs game. Clark says it’s not a mean or rough crowd on St. Patrick’s Day, but when people are drinking, they have to take precautions.

In addition, police don’t plan to get any units from outside the district as backup, but rather direct their presence in a more effective manner. While it’s certainly not expected to be 80 degrees on March 16, Clark says the officers in the 19th District now realize the emphasis placed on entertainment in Lake View.

“The Clark Street entertainment area is one of the most popular entertainment areas in the city now,” Clark said. “We’re the new Division Street, so there’s a lot of things we might have to pay special attention to now.”

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