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Police and EMS tend to a partygoer that fell and hit his head during High Fest on March 24. (FILE)

Here's how much local police departments spent during fests

While students attend fest during the spring, local police bring in additional officers to ensure the safety of students, but that comes with a cost. 

Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said mutual aid, which is when the department brings in additional officers from local departments such as Ohio University Police Department and the Athens County Sheriff's Office, does not cost anything. The department uses mutual aid for fests and pays additional officers to work.

“Mutual aid is just that,” Pyle said. “It’s, 'we help you, you help us.' We don’t use mutual aid for fests. We hire people for fests. It’s a semantics thing.” 

Pyle said APD the mutual aid agreement with OUPD allows them to trade officers for special events or situations. The City of Athens pays for extra officers and mounted patrol officers from other cities in Ohio. 

Actual costs vary between fests because different fests require different numbers of officers to be brought in.

APD can pay up to $350 per officer per event. The department is authorized to hire up to 50 additional officers per event outside of mutual aid. That means APD could pay up to $17,500 in additional officers per fest. 

Including mutual aid, there are about 150 to 175 officers at events such as fests. APD also pays for food, overtime, and “logistical supplies,” Pyle said. That totals $10,000-$13,000 of taxpayer money per event. 

"That’s just for police and that’s probably just for an eight hour operation," Pyle said. "Pricey.” 

All of those fees are covered in department's budget, Pyle said, with about $80,000 a year dedicated to fests and other large events. 

Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht said that in 2017, auxiliary officer costs were about $146,000. She said APD paid about $12,000 in 2017 for “special events costs,” which includes food, drinks and portable toilets. 

“As a reference, the total gross payroll for reserve and fest officers for Millfest 2018 comes to $8,996.50,” Hecht said in an email. “The additional costs for APD were $3,252.” 

She said those amounts do not include additional personnel costs in other departments such as code enforcement, fire department, the mayor’s office and court. 

OUPD Lt. Tim Ryan said OUPD has spent about $17,000 so far this year on overtime for fests. Last year, OUPD spent about $52,000 in total. 

Overtime pay for outside officers comes out of OUPD’s budget, Ryan said.

“The city and our department work very closely together in a lot of aspects,” Ryan said. "Especially when these fest are happening, you know, adjacent to campus, it’s … shared problem solving."

Bailey Gallion contributed to this report. 

@AshtonNichols_

an614816@ohio.edu

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