People tend to think that Halloween in Isla Vista has been an event that has forever been established, but in reality the first huge Halloween bash connected to a UC campus was not at UCSB, but instead at UC Berkeley.
The first large, street-filled Halloween in Isla Vista occurred in 1962.
Indeed, when UCSB moved from downtown Santa Barbara to Isla Vista in 1954, students were relocated from an established community to an isolated place.
Some have argued that the isolation accentuated and amplified risky behaviors of some students.
A festival started in the 1930s, "The Barbary Coast", where students dressed up and held events evocative of Gold Rush era San Francisco, became rowdy and was canceled by the student government in 1959.
Halloween, as an annual event in Isla Vista, took off in the late 1970s, but even at that point it involved primarily UCSB students and a few other locals.
By the early 1980s, word of mouth had spread and students from schools all over California began to converge on Isla Vista for Halloween.
 Rowdiness in county-administered Isla Vista increased, however, despite admonitions of UCSB administrators.
At that time the County sheriffs deputies viewed enforcement of "quality of life" laws in Isla Vista as a low priority and consigned matters to UCSB police.
A unique sharing of law enforcement responsibilities for county land between county sheriff's deputies and UCSB campus police commenced.

As the Halloween tradition grew, an increasing number of high school-aged students converged, leading to countermeasures to Halloween and generic partying in Isla Vista.
In 1993 law enforcement drafted a "Five Year Plan" which included confiscation of dangerous costume props, restricted parking, zero tolerance for open alcohol on the street, increased ID checks to make sure alcohol consumers were at least 21, a strict noise ordinance, enforcement of drunk-in-public laws and restrictions on open kegs at parties.
 Halloween is still Isla Vista's biggest annual event, often drawing crowds of 20,000-40,000 people.
Each year the crowds and people tend to get more violent and assaultive toward law enforcement, increasing the strictness.
The residents and students that reside in Isla Vista tend to have a negative view of the overcrowded event as visitors tend to litter and completely trash the neighborhood, also making it impossible to find parking or even drive around anywhere.

The explosive demonstrations of the 1960s changed the tenor of Isla Vista for a while and led to the establishment of the Isla Vista Foot Patrol, now a joint effort of Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office Deputies, the University of California Police Department and the California Highway Patrol.
Following the 2014 Deltopia riots, Isla Vista Foot Patrol will be implementing police body cameras by the end of 2015.

Halloween in 2014 had 300 police officers on call for the entire weekend.
The tallies that were released by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's office showed a decrease in citations and arrests compared to the year before on the two-day Halloween period.
People tend to think that Halloween in Isla Vista has been an event that has forever been established, but in reality the first huge Halloween bash connected to a UC campus was not at UCSB, but instead at UC Berkeley. The first large, street-filled Halloween in Isla Vista occurred in 1962. Indeed, when UCSB moved from downtown Santa Barbara to Isla Vista in 1954, students were relocated from an established community to an isolated place. Some have argued that the isolation accentuated and amplified risky behaviors of some students. A festival started in the 1930s, "The Barbary Coast", where students dressed up and held events evocative of Gold Rush era San Francisco, became rowdy and was canceled by the student government in 1959. Halloween, as an annual event in Isla Vista, took off in the late 1970s, but even at that point it involved primarily UCSB students and a few other locals. By the early 1980s, word of mouth had spread and students from schools all over California began to converge on Isla Vista for Halloween.  Rowdiness in county-administered Isla Vista increased, however, despite admonitions of UCSB administrators. At that time the County sheriffs deputies viewed enforcement of "quality of life" laws in Isla Vista as a low priority and consigned matters to UCSB police. A unique sharing of law enforcement responsibilities for county land between county sheriff's deputies and UCSB campus police commenced.
As the Halloween tradition grew, an increasing number of high school-aged students converged, leading to countermeasures to Halloween and generic partying in Isla Vista. In 1993 law enforcement drafted a "Five Year Plan" which included confiscation of dangerous costume props, restricted parking, zero tolerance for open alcohol on the street, increased ID checks to make sure alcohol consumers were at least 21, a strict noise ordinance, enforcement of drunk-in-public laws and restrictions on open kegs at parties.  Halloween is still Isla Vista's biggest annual event, often drawing crowds of 20,000-40,000 people. Each year the crowds and people tend to get more violent and assaultive toward law enforcement, increasing the strictness. The residents and students that reside in Isla Vista tend to have a negative view of the overcrowded event as visitors tend to litter and completely trash the neighborhood, also making it impossible to find parking or even drive around anywhere.
The explosive demonstrations of the 1960s changed the tenor of Isla Vista for a while and led to the establishment of the Isla Vista Foot Patrol, now a joint effort of Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office Deputies, the University of California Police Department and the California Highway Patrol. Following the 2014 Deltopia riots, Isla Vista Foot Patrol will be implementing police body cameras by the end of 2015.
Halloween in 2014 had 300 police officers on call for the entire weekend. The tallies that were released by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's office showed a decrease in citations and arrests compared to the year before on the two-day Halloween period.
Isla Vista, California