Weather could produce more student arrests

If history is any indication, the weather may play some role in how many people are arrested during the weekend's Little 500 festivities, police and University officials say. While no official statistics are available to indicate a rise in illegal activities, IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said his 34 years of experience have shown that a warm day typically includes more arrests than a cold, rainy one. \n"It's almost a no-brainer," Minger said, referring to the correlation.\nWhen it's warm, people take their indoor activities outside, which are more visible to the public and officers, while people generally stay in their homes or apartments during cold weather, he said. \n"(In cold or rainy weather) the chances for them getting into trouble will decrease exponentially because they won't be out in other people's space and other people's environment," Minger said. \nHe said crimes most associated with weather change include public intoxication, underage consumption and related offenses, including vandalism, trespassing, larceny and assault, among others. \n"The minute the weather gets nice and people start going out, now they're traversing from one place to another," he said. "When you do that out in the public now, you start to encroach on someone else's environment and their space (and) then it becomes an issue."\nThe trend is one that has been documented nationwide, said Bill Head, a senior lecturer in the criminal justice department. \nBut, Head said, much of the research centers around instances of violent behavior in urban areas when temperatures reach above 90 degrees. At IU, and especially during this particular weekend, he said the issue is less about an increase in crime but rather an increase in outdoor, public behavior.\n"We're not talking about raping and pillaging here for the most part," he said. "We're just talking about students letting off steam and having a tough time. If it's cooler or rainy, people tend to be more inside and more discreet in their debauchery, and so they're less likely to draw the attention to the police."\nHe compared the police in warm weather situations to firefighters who can spot trouble just by looking at it. \n"If you can see smoke, you know there's a fire," he said. \nDean of Students Dick McKaig agreed and said warmer weather conditions could shift parties and other gatherings out of basements and closed spaces into the outdoors. But he said the warm weather itself did not cause more of the activities to occur -- it just makes them more noticeable. \n"(If) it's a big party and it's warm weather, the big party spills outside," making it easier for police to recognize illegal activities, he said. \nDuring the weekend of the annual bike race, weather for the Bloomington area should be cloudy with a high of 68 \ndegrees Saturday and 69 degrees Sunday, with precipitation possible Friday night, said John Ogren, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis. \n"It looks like a pretty decent weekend," he said. \nBut Minger said in recent years arrests from IUPD officers have decreased during Little 500 weekend, which he attributed to increased enforcement of rules from the Dean of Students' office.\n"It pushed the parties out into the municipal areas of the city and even out of the county," Minger said.\nHe said when the race occurs, officers hope for warm, sunny weather, despite the possible correlation to more arrests. \n"If we didn't really appreciate these kinds of times when it comes up, we wouldn't be working in this kind of environment," he said. "We as a police department absolutely hope for the best, nice weather, (and that) everyone gets along. \n"Saying that, we hope for the best," he added, "(but) we are absolutely prepared for worst case scenarios where people do get intoxicated"