The Hoboken Police Department utilized about 334 hours of overtime, which cost approximately $31,000, during SantaCon earlier this month, an official said.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Hoboken public safety spokeswoman Marci Rubin released the overtime figures following an inquiry from HCV, also disclosing previously released statistics from the holiday-themed bar crawl.
Between 12 noon on Saturday, December 16th through 4 a.m. on Sunday, December 17th, four people were arrested, two of which related to SantaCon – including one driving while intoxicated arrest – 34 summonses were issued, 14 people were transported to the hospital, and there were 362 calls for service.
Two bars were also cited for going over their occupancy by the Hoboken Fire Department.
Rubin also indicated that there were 350 calls for service last year and the average for a Saturday in Hoboken is about 250 to 300.
In 2019, the last SantaCon prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for service surged to 521 and eight people were arrested, leading to roughly $75,000 spent on police overtime costs.
Since then, the event has fizzled significantly, with no SantaCon at all in 2020, with 221 calls for service and four arrests at a vaccine-only version of the event in 2021 and not much of an effort to organize the annual day time bar crawl last year.
On Twitter, Public Safety Director Kenneth Ferrante, who infamously tweeted arrests during “Con”-themed bar crawls while police chief, stated on the day of the event that the police overtime spent this year would be far less than what was needed in 2019.
Hoboken taxpayers paid out $31,000 so that bar owners could make windfall profits.
How much extra did the City bring in Santa Con sales taxes ?
The city brings in nothing from sales tax because it’s a State tax, not local.