Police watching Lilac Festival

Police watching Lilac Festival
As usual there's a large, and somewhat excessive police presence at the Lilac Festival. I have no complaints about any of the police, who were all quite friendly. I just find it to be an absurd waste of money. Calgary has a silly policy of mandating a certain ratio of police to attendees, which is then billed to the organizers. That's a huge burden. And, it ignores the fact the festival has been totally peaceful throughout its history.