EXCLUSIVE The day before Christmas is traditionally one of the busiest for police as people hit the town and the annual tradition of what’s become known as Black Eye Friday, or Mad Friday
Party-goers will be flooding town centres this Friday as the annual tradition of Black Eye Friday, or Mad Friday, marks the start of the Christmas break. Over the past decade, news reports have been filled with scenes of drunken chaos, likening cities to the Wild West.
However, while it remains the busiest day in December for police forces nationwide, many forces report a quieter day compared to New Year’s Day. The Reach Data Unit submitted Freedom of Information requests to every police force in the country to determine the number of arrests made each day last December.
Police Scotland’s figures are not included due to different data recording methods. Last year, Black Eye Friday fell on December 22, with police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland making a total of 3,300 arrests.
This was the highest number of arrests on any day throughout the month. However, New Year’s Day saw even more activity for the police, with 2,865 arrests on December 31 and a whopping 3,635 arrests once the clock struck midnight.
Black Eye Friday only topped the December list by a small margin, with the next highest number of arrests being just 61 fewer on Wednesday, December 20. Interestingly, only five police forces reported their highest number of arrests outside of New Year on Black Eye Friday – these were Cambridgeshire Constabulary, City of London Police, Cumbria Constabulary, and Lancashire Constabulary.
Despite the reputation of Black Eye Friday, it didn’t rank among the top days for arrests last year for many police forces covering large urban centres. For instance, Greater Manchester Police made 204 arrests on December 22, placing it only 21st in terms of busiest days for the force that month.
The busiest day was Wednesday 13 with 251 arrests. Merseyside Police arrested 83 people on December 22, making it their 16th busiest day that month.
New Year’s Day topped the list with 115 arrests, followed by Wednesday 27 with 100. The Met detained 341 individuals on Mad / Black Eye Friday, ranking it as their 10th busiest day of the year.
Their busiest day other than New Year was Thursday December 14 with 370 arrests. West Midlands Police and West Yorkshire Police made 164 and 160 arrests respectively on December 22, ranking it as their joint ninth and sixth busiest day of the month.
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