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Greater Victoria police busy with St. Patrick’s Day calls

Victoria police respond to 82 calls for service
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Saanich police got six drunk drivers off the roads on St. Patrick’s Day this year. (Travis Paterson/News Staff)

Police around Greater Victoria were kept busy over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

On Saturday (March 17) alone, the Victoria Police Department responded to 82 calls for service from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m. Const. Matt Rutherford was on patrol live tweeting from approximately 2 p.m. when officers began with five calls waiting to be dispatched.

“That’s a lot,” said department spokesperson Bowen Osoko. “Often we’ll see calls holding in the queue at shift change but this was calls holding in the middle of the day.”

In anticipation of a busy holiday night, officers who aren’t normally on patrol duties were called up including those from the late night task force and community services division.

They responded to a variety of calls including assisting ambulance services with an unco-operative patient, arriving at the scene of a theft of pallets, an uninsured motorcycle driver, shoplifters, as well as a collision and another theft in Esquimalt.

There was also a call for a report of an indecent act, the suspect a 65-year-old man with orange hair in a long green jacket.

“The indecent exposure was definitely unusual,” Osoko said. “We don’t normally get indecent exposures on a typical Saturday night.”

Calls regarding threats, a mental health warrant and a loud party at a local hotel that was disturbing guests also rounded out the St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

In Saanich, the traffic unit took six impaired drivers off the road.


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kristyn.anthony@vicnews.com