Savannah St. Patrick's Day parade and festival return proves tamer, fewer arrests made

Over the four-day St. Patrick's Day weekend, 142 people were booked into the Chatham County Detention Center for more than 193 offenses, ranging from public drunkenness to homicides — few, however, were related to the celebration that has been in the past a raucous excuse for excess.

According to the Savannah Police Department, only 17 arrests were made in the newly expanded festival zone from River Street on the north to Victory Drive on the south, although no arrests were made in the Starland area where the to-go cup zone extended.

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In a prepared statement released by the department on Tuesday, Police Chief Roy Minter was quoted as saying, “The majority of the visitors were well behaved and enjoyed themselves without excessive over-indulgence or illegal activity. We hope to continue to see this trend with future crowds."

Despite repeated warnings ahead of Thursday's parade, SPD had to tow 42 vehicles parked along the parade route.

During the parade, a Georgia State Patrol trooper made a single arrest — for public drunkenness. According to the release, an additional 16 arrests were made in the operation zone during the rest of the weekend, down by nearly half from 2019.

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Eight people were arrested for obstruction; three for public drunkenness. The SPD Traffic Unit wrote 122 citations and made 17 DUI arrests.

Of the 35 businesses monitored by the SPD's Alcohol Beverage Compliance (ABC) unit, 12 restaurants and businesses failed by selling alcohol to underage drinkers and/or failing to check IDs, including the CVS on Bull Street, the Bohemian Hotel on the river, and Cha-Del's liquor store on Bull Street in the Starland neighborhood.

Despite the smaller and tamer crowds over the four-day celebration, trash still reigned. The city reported at its Tuesday press conference that sanitation workers hauled away 300 tons of waste.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Fewer arrests made during 2022 Savannah St. Patrick's Day festival