CHAMPAIGN – Fewer arrests, fewer tickets, fewer medical calls and no major injuries during Friday's Unofficial St. Patrick's Day have Champaign public-safety officials feeling somewhat relieved about the annual bacchanal.

"I think it is a measure of a certain level of success," said Champaign police Sgt. Scott Friedlein, the city's liquor-enforcement and special-events guru.

A final tally of activity for Friday and early Saturday put the number of criminal arrests at seven, down from 15 last year; notices to appear in court for less-serious offenses at 265, compared with 351 in 2009; and medical calls at 28, compared with 33 last year.

An unofficial analysis of the statistics shows that the students who ran afoul of the law represented 43 colleges and universities, including six from the Big Ten, and three high schools. They came from nine states, and the two people who traveled the farthest to get into trouble came from New Hampshire.

University of Illinois students led the pack for the number of tickets received at 92. Illinois State University and Eastern Illinois University tied for second place with 10 students each being ticketed for offenses ranging from minors in possession of alcohol to public possession of alcohol.

With the tab for city ordinance violations ranging from $165 to $310, Champaign stands to gain more than $43,000 in revenue from fines, assuming all those ticketed plead guilty or are found guilty. Last year's police overtime cost taxpayers just over $10,600.

"It's like last year. We had a ton of arrests but we thought it was a success," Friedlein said. "We have recognized some of our key issues. Some of our party sizes seem to be down, which equates to, typically, less issues for us overall. We still had typical nuisance issues with balconies."

He said cracking down early (about 9:30 a.m. Friday) on an apartment complex where a young woman threw a beer can off a balcony helped a bit with that problem.

"We pulled in, took enforcement action and that party was shut down," he said, adding that word spread through that complex on East Armory quickly and police received no more complaints from that building of things being tossed from on high.

"That's the message you want to send our early and strong: We won't tolerate those behaviors that create a public-safety risk," he said. Nine people received tickets for throwing objects off balconies.

A string of calls between 9 and 10 p.m. Friday for people so drunk they needed medical attention had authorities concerned. But Friedlein said police had stressed to partyers to call professionals for help if they had a friend in trouble.

"I personally responded to one where it was called in by friends who wanted to make sure a girl was treated. They did the right thing and didn't worry about what might happen to them," he said.

Last year, 22 people went to the hospital by ambulance. That number was 16 this year.

Friedlein said Campustown bars appeared to get busier later in the evening, likely because of the fact that the weather was cool and people were wanting to move indoors.

This year's rule that all people entering bars had to be 21 "didn't seem to slow things down," he said, adding there were no serious violations reported at any of the campus bars.

Friedlein said about midnight Friday, Campustown got pretty quiet.

"It was like somebody turned off a switch. By 1 a.m. (Saturday) I wouldn't even equate it to a normal weekend," he said.

Police planned to do their normal bar checks on Saturday night as they would on most weekends.

Friedlein said aside from the costs that can be quantified, such as police overtime, there are other "inconvenience" costs.

"We had over 100 relocations (vehicles towed) just on Champaign-controlled parking lots. That doesn't even touch UI parking lots," he said.

There were about 60 vehicles towed early Friday morning from UI lots.

Friedlein estimated it would cost a person at least $100 to get a vehicle back once they could figure out were it was towed.

Pat Callaghan, owner of Jon's Pipe Shop at 509 E. Green St., said shop keepers were getting the areas around their businesses cleaned up by late afternoon Saturday.

One police officer quipped that Green Street looked "like a garbage truck had exploded" on it.

"They send the street sweepers around. They'll get it cleaned up," Callaghan said of the city's responsibility. "It's a little mess for a couple of days, but any big event weekend is going to be like that."

Callaghan thinks Unofficial St. Patrick's Day has "settled down" and gotten a little less rowdy every year. He enjoys seeing new faces in his shop, and the event doesn't hurt his business.

"The kids had a great time. (They) were fairly well behaved from what I saw," he said. "Last year, I had one drunk female. This year, I had no drunks."