SLO’s cost to police St. Fratty’s increased this year. Here’s how much
The city of San Luis Obispo once again spent more than $100,000 on St. Fratty’s Day enforcement — and the expenses were slightly up from last year.
According to SLO Police Department spokesperson Christine Wallace, the city spent a total of $136,305 to staff and equip law enforcement on March 14 — the day of the annual St. Fratty’s Day celebration.
Wallace said $72,361 of that went toward staffing, while another $63,944 went toward non-staff expenses like equipment rentals, advertising, food and coffee and hotel rooms.
Both the city and Cal Poly ramped up their St. Fratty’s enforcement over the last two years, after 2024’s party resulted in more than 6,000 students gathering for a block party in the neighborhood streets near campus, leading to vandalism and complaints from neighbors.
This year, the city brought officers from 21 agencies around the county and state to SLO to keep an eye on the neighborhoods, while the university hosted a music festival on campus that was attended by at least 11,000 people.
The city also closed roads the morning of the event and implemented safety enhancement zones that doubled fines for violations like open containers and unruly gatherings during the weekends leading up to and of the event.
Overall, the city conducted eight arrests and issued 37 citations during this year’s safety enhancement zones — a drop from the previous year, when 25 people were arrested and 45 citations were issued.
In comparison, St. Fratty’s Day 2024 saw 159 citations and 35 arrests, The Tribune previously reported.
This year, there were also no efforts by students to gather in the streets, the city said.
In 2025, the Police Department spent a total of $123,649 on St. Fratty’s Day enforcement, The Tribune previously reported, about $13,000 less than this year’s expenses.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly spent nearly $1.2 million last year.
The Tribune reached out to Cal Poly to get the university’s expenses for this year’s concert. Spokesperson Keegan Koberl said on Thursday that the final tally of costs was not yet available.
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
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