Alcohol arrests drop on campus

While alcohol and drug arrests at IU have decreased in the last year, IU officials, police and store owners remain cautious about causes and implications of the decline.\nDean of Students Richard McKaig said he believes it would be a good idea to withhold judgment on these statistics for at least another year or two.\n"I'd like to think the arrests are down because students are drinking less," McKaig said. "But until we see lower numbers I wouldn't want to be premature in making assumptions. We experienced a hike when we were in the NCAA championships where there was a lot of extra partying. Now we're back down to the norm of what it was about two years ago."\nAlcohol arrests dropped to 614 in 2003 from 814 the previous year, and drug arrests fell to 276 from 338, according to IU Police Department reports.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said it's hard to determine the cause of the decline, or if the numbers are part of a bigger downward trend.\n"As far as the amount of incidents, they haven't declined that much," Minger said. "Our work force has been fairly stable, so it's just hard to say. We try to figure out what exactly may cause an escalation or fall, and really we can only come up with a variety of pressures. But even then, we can't be sure."\nMinger said factors such as the weather, how the sports teams are doing or even students learning how to draw less attention to themselves can be explanations for the decline.\n"Sometimes if students are watching a game on TV and drinking, if the weather is nice outside they may spill outside," he said. "If there's a big game, with a lot of students who spill outside, that right there could be 10 to 15 citations. If that happens a couple times a year, that's a significant increase. Sometimes small issues like that can make a difference in the year's arrest count."\nThe publicity about Indiana as a party school inspired a crackdown in 2002 resulting in an increase in arrests. This publicity also made students more aware of police, either deterring them from drinking, or making them more aware of how to draw less attention to themselves.\n"There was so much publicity at that time," Minger said. "People always thought they were going to be arrested, so it caused people to be much more cautious. Most of our arrests are incidents where someone is causing a fight or acting in a way that makes our officers suspicious. When students realize that, and concentrate on not standing out, it is possible the arrests could decrease"\nAssistant Manager of Big Red Liquor Store Nick Fleming said he believes the decrease may have resulted from students' awareness of the consequences and the crackdown against fake IDs.\n"We always are training our employees on looking for fakes," Fleming said. "We ask questions on IDs. We also don't sell to people that look to be drunk or smell to have alcohol on their breath, as well as those who have been in the store over one or two times in the same night."\nFleming said he believes liquor stores especially have been working harder to crackdown against underage buyers.\n"I think with liquor stores people are getting the hint and are finally realizing they aren't going to be getting away with going in with a fake ID -- not Big Red anyway," Fleming said. "Most people have come to know not to come into a Big Red store with a fake ID or we're going to catch you. We're either going to take it or you're going to have to deal with the law."\nSenior Rob Bonnell, who frequents the bars in Bloomington, said he often times sees police warn students to leave, rather than giving them a ticket, or arresting them.\n"I see the cops at Sports every weekend," Bonnell said. "I used to be afraid to walk down the street drunk because of their presence, but recently, I've seen police more interested in everyone's safety and would rather ask you to leave than write a ticket."\nBonnell said he believes the lax attitude lasts usually until some issue sparking the crackdown, similar to what happened when The Princeton Review named IU the No. 1 party school.\n"When someone fell down the stairs at Sports, they were a lot harder with checking IDs," Bonnell said. "I'm 22, and they gave me a lot of problems trying to get in after that happened."\nAlthough there remains no clear-cut answer as to why there was a decrease, administrators, police and owners remain hopeful the trend continues.\n"Certainly the University has done a lot to make sure students exercise responsibility and be careful if they are, in fact, drinking," McKaig said. "The midnight special is available so students don't have to be walking or driving, which might help reduce the number of arrests. However, it's just too early to predict. Give it another year."\n-- Contact staff writer Mallory Simon at mgsimon@indiana.edu. The Associated Press contributed to this report.