SantaCon leads to 14 arrests, public officials plea for cancellation

<p>This year's SantaCon led to arrests, injuries and annual pleas from public officials to put an end to the event.</p>

News 12 Staff

Dec 16, 2018, 2:20 PM

Updated 2,196 days ago

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This year's SantaCon led to arrests, injuries and annual pleas from public officials to put an end to the event.
The event started on Saturday and continued on until early Sunday morning.
Police say the event led to 14 arrests and 33 summonses for public intoxication and urination.
The arrests included charges for DWI, sexual contact, and fights that broke out in bars and one restaurant.
Police also say 46 tickets were issued for moving violations, up from 32 tickets last year.
The bar crawl involved 10 taverns in Hoboken. Last year, 30 bars were involved in the event.
Johnny Rockets was one of the popular destinations of the SantaCon incidents. Two police officers were exposed to combatant's blood there and needed to be treated.
A total of 4 officers were injured during SantaCon, according to Hoboken's police chief. They were checked out at local hospitals and were cleared to return to work before the end of the night.
During SantaCon, police had roving DWI patrols which picked up drunk driving suspects while officers monitored overcrowding at bars.
Police say they responded to 429 calls for service between noon and 4 a.m. Last year, 282 calls were reported in the same time frame.
They say mischief seemed to escalate after 4:30 p.m. and level off around 8 p.m.
Mayor Ravi Bhalla said that he would "review every available option" to end SantaCon as mayor-elect last year.