Editor's note
This story is about the funding for law enforcement in the San Luis Obispo community and citations given in relation to St. Fratty's containment. Mustang News is actively working to report on funding for the Morning on the Green concert.
The city of San Luis Obispo spent $86,000 on overtime pay and $29,000 in expenses to fund St. Fratty’s containment efforts, according to Sara Armas, deputy city clerk. Law enforcement agencies from across the state, from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, assisted containment efforts for St. Fratty’s gatherings.
To celebrate St. Fratty’s, groups of friends who journeyed down Hathaway Avenue in the early hours of March 15 were met with police barricades blocking the street and turning them away.
“The cops are a little over the top,” one student said to Mustang News that morning on Hathaway Avenue and Carpenter Street. “A cop yelled at some girl, ‘You can’t run from the cops.’ It was the highway patrol. What are they doing here?”
The group that temporarily formed on Hathway Avenue this year had fewer students and visitors than previous years due to the immense police presence and a concert hosted on Cal Poly’s campus.
All law enforcement shifts directly related to St. Fratty’s containment were considered overtime hours.
San Luis Obispo handled overtime pay for San Luis Obispo Police Department and additional costs. The statewide police coalition managed their officer’s payroll to support the containment efforts, according to Armas.
The funding to support containment came from the city’s operations budget, according to the Armas. SLOPD Public Affairs Manager Christine Wallace said the safety enhancement zones led to good outcomes for the city.
“Everything went really smoothly on our end,” Wallace said. “No one got hurt, and the street party was eliminated.”
Citations decline
The statewide police coalition made four arrests and gave 45 citations related to St. Fratty’s festivities, according to Armas. The number of citations police wrote this year declined compared to the consistent growth since the pandemic.
Law enforcement wrote all public urination citations and most public alcohol possession or consumption citations in the downtown area. There was only one unruly gathering citation given this year – to the Delta Chi Fraternity, who declined to comment for this story.
Halloweekend citations increased and surpassed the number of St. Fratty’s related citations this academic year. In early April, law enforcement issued 485 citations and arrests concerning Deltopia in Santa Barbara, according to the LA Times.
Statewide action
From the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office, sixteen officers worked during the St. Patrick’s Day safety enhancement zones set by the city. Over 100 law enforcement personnel from SLO and around the state supported St. Fratty’s containment efforts.
President Jeffrey Armstrong expressed his gratitude to the campus community in an email in the days following St. Fratty’s.
“I want to thank the many staff, volunteers, student leaders, city, county and many other agencies who helped with the efforts,” Armstrong wrote in the email. “Although there were some issues, we achieved our primary goal of avoiding large-scale, out-of-control parties in the neighborhoods near campus.”
The university hosted an on campus concert on the morning of March 15 to mitigate gatherings around the city.
Armstrong appreciates the partnership between the university and the city. He said the external law enforcement agencies played an integral role in containment efforts, according to the email.
Katy Clark and Dylan White contributed to this story.
Editor’s Note April 21, 2025: An earlier version of this article misstated which agency received overtime pay coverage from the city. San Luis Obispo handled overtime pay for the San Luis Obispo Police Department, not the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office. The article has been updated to reflect this correction.