Butte St. Patrick’s Day Includes Few Arrests, Less Than Ten DUIs

There was lots of fear and trepidation in Butte last Thursday, with all signs pointing to a busy St. Patrick’s Day weekend for local law enforcement: The jail was nearly filled and St. Patrick’s Day would be occurring on a Friday for the first time in many years. Despite all the worrying though, Butte-Silver Bow County Undersheriff George Skuletich says the weekend went extremely well.

"It was one of our lowest arrests years that we've had for the past ten or twelve years, said Skuletich. "The crowd was large, it was a nice day and everyone was peaceful... it went really well."

All in all, Skuletich said the St. Patrick’s Day arrests were similar to what might take place over the course of a regular weekend.

"It was a smooth actually, it was a pretty quiet weekend. There were about 27 arrests, but a lot of them we would have had anyhow without being St. Patrick's Day. I think we had seven to nine DUIs, the Highway Patrol was in town working DUIs heavy, the rest were disorderly conducts, so nothing major."

The 27 St. Patrick’s Day arrests pale in comparison to past years when the number of arrests have been near one hundred.