page_title: Mifflin Street Block Party
section_title: Police control
hierarchical_section_title: Mifflin Street Block Party / Police control
caption_attribution_description: English: Panoramic view of the Mifflin Street Block Party in 2009
context_page_description: The Mifflin Street Block Party is an annual celebration held on Mifflin Street in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, which is held on the last Saturday of April. It is one of two large parties held in Madison, the other being the Halloween party on State Street. The party has typically featured local and out-of-state musical acts playing on house porches, balconies and backyard stages. The party has not had city sponsorship since 2012. Efforts by the university and the city to create competing events have been unsuccessful.
context_section_description: Between 1998 and 2002, attendance ranged from several hundred to a couple thousand. In 2002, however, an unexpected 20,000 people showed up for the event. That same year, a riot during Madison's Halloween festivities prompted police to begin systematically clamping down on the Mifflin event. The city has consistently refused proposals by students to close the street and revive the block party under student control. A Madison police lieutenant was quoted as saying, "Quite frankly, we wish this event would go away." Since 2002, there have been an increased number of arrests and a decrease in attendance. The majority of arrests are for alcohol-related incidents.
  Police have dealt with the event by heavily enforcing a number of ordinances. This has included the banning of glass containers on Mifflin, the limiting of the number of kegs that a house party can have, and the creation of a processing center for dealing with those arrested. Police are also notorious for handing out open container citations and targeting especially loud and raucous house parties. In 2004, one house received $25,000 in fines for "selling alcohol without a permit." In 2005, police arrested 225 people and issued 317 citations. The cost to the city was $100,600 and issued $85,000 in fines, most of which was dismissed or reduced.
  The Madison Police Department reported 60 arrests in 2018, and most offenses were for consuming alcohol in the street, public urination, or carrying glass containers.
caption: Panoramic view of the Mifflin Street Block Party in 2009
exif: {"Image Make": "Arcsoft", "Image Model": "PhotoStitch", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ImageDescription": "Add Exif tag", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "171", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "601", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "19200", "EXIF ExposureTime": "339/25000", "EXIF FNumber": "303/100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:07:08 10:28:10", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "CbY", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8/5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/2", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "217/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "MultiSpot", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB"}