St. Patrick’s Day Partyers Will Feel Police Presence

Kelly green will be everywhere on St. Patrick’s Day.

So will police blue.

Area law enforcement agencies planned sobriety checks and increased patrols for today’s annual celebration, a ritual usually accompanied by considerable beer drinking.

Seal Beach, typically a magnet for county revelers, is putting more officers on the beat. Fullerton police plan a sobriety checkpoint. And authorities in Newport Beach say they will have about 50% more officers patrolling streets than on a normal Friday night.

“Our field officers will be particularly alert to alcohol-related violations,” said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Andy Gonis. “We want (celebrators) to enjoy the occasion but be especially careful driving.”

Some pub owners look forward to their busiest day of the year, when beer is poured with breakfast and crowds are lining up by midday. Those places are also urging drinkers not to drive.

“It used to be a little scary at times but lately it’s calmed down,” said Bill Hamilton, owner of Malarky’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach. “It’s finally sinking in that you can’t drink too much and avoid the consequences.”

The biggest St. Patrick’s Day crowds are expected to descend on Seal Beach, where a string of Irish bars on Main Street will be decked out for the occasion--and probably jammed to the rafters.

“It’ll just be a madhouse,” said Tony Campregher, who will be one of four bartenders pouring beer at The Irisher. “It’ll be packed--the whole town.”

Seal Beach police are assigning extra patrol officers to walk the strip where most of the action is expected.

“We will be having foot beat officers on Main Street, where the highest activity for St. Patrick’s Day is,” said Officer Rick Paap. “Drinking in public will not be tolerated.”

In Fullerton, police will set up a sobriety checkpoint on a yet-undisclosed “major thoroughfare.” Motorists will be checked for sobriety and given safety literature from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Eight people were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and 28 others were cited for driving without a license last year on St. Patrick’s Day during a similar checkpoint on Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.

Police Sgt. Glenn Deveney said Fullerton chose to set up a sobriety checkpoint on St. Patrick’s Day because of “the number of after-office-hours parties traditionally held on that day.”

One city that notably did not make special preparations this year was Mission Viejo, where the traditional St. Patrick’s Day parade was scrubbed after 25 years over concerns about funding and shrinking attendance in recent years.

It might be just as well. The parade likely would have taken place last Saturday, just hours after torrential rains.

“It would have been a very, very large mess to deal with,” said Sue DeCant, spokeswoman for the Mission Viejo Activities Committee, the parade organizing group. “It was kind of the luck of the Irish that we didn’t have it that day.”