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Chapel Hill's Halloween celebrations are notorious — not just for the crowds of 70"000 to 80000 people but also for the drunken disorder theft and violence that comes with the throngs of witches and ghouls milling around shoulder-to-shoulder.
Now the growing sentiment is that October 31 needs to change.
But as the town begins a new effort to control the event and keep participants safe" arrest data and expert testimony show just how difficult downsizing an event of Halloween's magnitude and tradition could be.
Demons from out of town
Town officials highlight shrinking the event's size by limiting Halloween celebrations to Chapel Hill residents as an effective way to reduce crime.
""One of the messages that we have to convey is that this is going to be a smaller party"" Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said.
And a smaller party means a local party.""
But measures that make it harder for out-of-towners to attend festivities might not translate to preventing serious crimes.
Police data shows Chapel Hill residents contribute significantly to crime each year with offenses just as violent as other people from across the state.
People with Chapel Hill addresses make up 35 percent of those arrested in the past seven years" according to arrest records provided by Chapel Hill Police and analyzed by The Daily Tar Heel.
Their crimes from assault and battery to felony possession of cocaine were no less severe than those of out-of-towners.
Thirty-two percent of charges brought against 22 Durham residents in the past seven years were for violent crimes compared to 43 percent for 76 Chapel Hill residents.
Police also arrest an undetermined number of UNC students from outside of town each year who might list addresses outside of Chapel Hill.
And even when outsiders are discouraged the safety problem does not dissolve.
In 2001 after the attacks of Sept. 11 Chapel Hill police officers discouraged outsiders from driving to the city by setting up vehicle checkpoints a mile and half from Franklin Street in every direction.
They managed to cut Halloween's size in half from the previous year's 50000 to 25000 people Police Chief Brian Curran said.
The smaller event was safer with only 17 arrests compared to an average of 34 during the next six years.
But Chapel Hill residents still stole drove drunk and assaulted police officers committing more crimes than they did in 2003 when the crowd was back to normal sizes.
Limits like the roadblocks of 2001 are also very resource intensive. Gregg Jarvies police chief at the time said controlling access to Halloween would take as many or more" officers as the town currently dispatches.
Restrictions also met substantial public resistance.
""It came at a high price" Jarvies said. They felt like it should be a community event" and they didn't want it curtailed.""
The Franklin Street problem
Other options for controlling Franklin Street festivities include limiting the number of people who can access the area" no matter where they come from.
Officials are looking into charging for admission canceling park-and-ride transportation setting a curfew or offering alternative activities among other things.
But it's not clear that crowds in the downtown area can be effectively controlled or that Franklin Street is the only problem area.
Thirty-five percent of charges made the past seven years were for crimes committed on East or West Franklin Street.
Other towns like Madison Wis. have been able to impose an entrance fee because the area where they celebrate is more enclosed than downtown Chapel Hill" Curran said.
He questioned the feasibility of doing the same here.
""Franklin Street is so porous"" he said. Charging for access would be a very difficult thing to do.""
Enforcing a curfew could cause the same problems.
In 2006" the town imposed a strict ending time for the event by stopping bus services to parking lots at 1:30 a.m.
But many decided to stay and walk the distance to their car Jarvies and Curran said.
If the town decides to curtail Franklin Street access either by a strict curfew or entrance fees it might have to consider previously unused aggressive measures such as tear gas or mass arrests" Jarvies said.
""Without using aggressive tactics" it would be very difficult to keep those people off the streets" he said.
Unlike Apple Chill, which was canceled in 2006 after two shootings, Halloween is not a town-sponsored event and cannot be officially scratched.
If we don't have the right and the ability to keep something like 50"000 people from coming into Chapel Hill so they can get drunk … it raises the question as to whether there are any civil and legal authority over anything" Chapel Hill Town Council Member Matt Czajkowski said.
Offering alternative activities to Franklin Street would require the town to take responsibility for the event along with the added costs.
Jarvies added that the strain of moderating two events could inhibit the effectiveness of law enforcement in both locations.
The process forward
Plans for changing future Halloweens are still in early stages, officials said.
Just as celebrations slowly evolved from a few hundred people strolling the sidewalks in the 1980s to the mobs of the past few years, moving back to a smaller, more controlled event could take years.
Although Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward is interested in making changes for 2008, he said he and others recognize that creating a safer evening is going to take time and preparation.
This is a multiyear process"" he said. I think the research will come in the form of two police departments and two administrations that have had some version of 30 years of watching this event grow.""
Jarvies" who served through dozens of Halloween and NCAA basketball celebrations on Franklin Street" said he recognizes the inertia of a hallowed tradition and the people that adhere to it.
""I hate to say it but there were a lot of times that we prayed for rain" Jarvies said. And when it rained" they still came out.""
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
