Guelph Police Service will add 50 officers on duty for the Saturday of this year’s Homecoming celebration at the University of Guelph.
Last year’s Homecoming celebrations resulted in a number of complaints from the community at large, said Chief Jeff DeRuyter of the Guelph Police Service.
“Despite having a plan that worked successfully in other years, it was a perfect storm of weather and a number of other factors,” said DeRuyter of last year’s event. “We saw some challenges that were difficult for us.”
From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during last year’s Homecoming Saturday, police and bylaw officers received 123 noise complaints, handing out 10 tickets. There were 10 arrests for intoxication and seven tickets for public urination issued. Two drivers were arrested for impaired/over 80.
“Traditionally we have seen when the football game comes, there’s a bit of a lull. Last year we didn’t see that. We had warm weather and we just didn’t see that the activities slowed down during the football game,” said DeRuyter.
Photographs from the aftermath of parties at residences on Chancellors Way, as well as other parties across the city, made their way to social media.
A lot of community concern came out of the aftermath of last year’s Homecoming celebration, said Kathryn Hofer, manager of off-campus living for the University of Guelph.
“There were several community meetings and opportunities for discussion. Through that, over the past year, we have been working really closely with Guelph Police and the City of Guelph, as well as with neighbourhood residents through our Homecoming Working Group,” said Hofer.
She said some new events have been planned this year with an aim to keep more students on campus, including a free community pancake breakfast at 8 a.m. on the Saturday.
The university and Central Student Association are presenting a concert featuring Juno award-winning group The Glorious Sons. The show begins at 7 p.m. on Homecoming Saturday at the Athletics Centre on campus.
“That will be a big draw, I think, for students to come in to campus and go to that concert,” said Hofer.
This weekend, a partnership between the university, police, neighbourhood groups and others is conducting the Right Foot Forward campaign — knocking on doors in the community to speak to people in off-campus neighbourhoods to deliver information to students about Guelph and to let residents know who to call if they have a concern with student activity.
The university is also working to inform students about the various bylaws in the city and is once again asking for off-campus parties to be registered.
“We are trying to work with students so they are educated and know the bylaws and that they are aware of what the nuisance party bylaw is and are aware of what the noise bylaw is and they can make decisions based on that,” said Hofer.
For its part, the Guelph Police Service is adding about 50 additional officers on Homecoming Saturday to its usual complement.
Last year, Guelph Police said there was an unexpected demand for service due to a home invasion and fatal collision, which led to some calls during Homecoming to be deemed lower priority.
“We have seen a number of these days more recently where we have had some significant other calls that have gone on that have had a tremendous impact on our staffing levels, so we have to make sure that we have a normal amount of officers that are dealing with the regular daily calls, and then we have dedicated officers that are dealing strictly with the activities pertaining to homecoming,” said DeRuyter. “We can’t wing it and hope it’s going to be a normal day — the domestics continue, the other types of calls we go on.”
