London police chief John Pare was critical of Western students and the thousands of other revelers who took part in "Fake Homecoming" or also known as FOCO this past Saturday.
At a news conference Tuesday, police announced there were 15,000 people on Broughdale Avenue at 12 p.m. and that figured swelled to 20,000 an hour later.
Over 130 provincial offence notices were issued, more than 3,100 warnings were given by police during the event.
A total of 28 people had to be taken to hospital during a three-hour period and just over 50 people were treated in hospital as a result of FOCO-related activities.
The London Fire Department found fire code violations at 30 homes.
London police had to call in 30 back-up officers from York Region to help monitor the party. Pare estimates that the costs police incurred including overtime will exceed $100,000.
“Even with those additional officers, our efforts to proactively patrol to dissuade unlawful acts and inappropriate behaviour quickly shifted to crowd management to minimize the negative impact and mitigate the risk to officer and public safety caused by the large crowds,” Pare said.
The massive crowd stretched out resources of emergency responders.
“An event of this size caused an increased demand on Middlesex-London Paramedic Service resources and our ability to provide service to the City of London and County of Middlesex, even with additional resources deployed,” said Middlesex-London Paramedic Service Chief Neal Roberts.
Police will be meeting over the next several weeks to discuss the issues surrounding FOCO.
