IUPD expects relaxed graduation weekend around IU campus

The IU Police Department has to work extra hard almost every weekend IU holds a special event, said IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger.\nOne of the few exceptions, he said, is graduation.\n"It's rather uneventful," he said. "It doesn't really present any kind of law enforcement or scheduling problem."\nDespite the influx of people arriving in Bloomington, Minger said graduation weekend usually produces fewer arrests and incidents than a normal weekend.\n"There's not excessive drinking," he said. "There's actually a calming effect on people who attend."\nDetective Sgt. David Drake, a spokesman for the Bloomington Police Department, said BPD does not treat graduation weekend any differently from other weekends. In fact, he was not even aware that graduation was this weekend.\n"To my knowledge, we don't have any extra people coming in for that," he said. "There aren't any special plans."\nDrake said the only extra headache he expects for BPD this weekend is overcrowded restaurants and a little extra traffic. He said any loud graduation parties will still be subject to the "Quiet Nights" program, a city-wide ordinance that allows police to investigate complaints of noise between the hours of 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., but that this is the case every weekend.\nMinger said IUPD's only extra concern is directing traffic in and out of the area.\n"The only main function we perform is getting vehicles into the location and back out again," he said.\nMinger said although students are excited to graduate, that excitement usually does not lead to unsafe or criminal behavior.\n"I think the overall tone of this specific type of event isn't one that lends itself to the same kind of behavior as that of a football or basketball game," he said. "It's more of a solemn, sober event."\nA major factor in the safer atmosphere of graduation weekend is the presence of parents, Minger and Drake said.\n"There may be some parties, but it probably isn't much different from a normal Friday or Saturday," Drake said. "Especially if mommy and daddy are here, that should help keep things calm."\nMinger agreed, adding that graduation is an event associated with "academic tradition."\n"They wouldn't behave in quite the same way with their family as they would with their peers," he said. "It's not the type of atmosphere that you see at other types of special events. It's not the type of thing that lends itself to intoxicated people making bad decisions"