Excise surprise for Little 500

I’m not the kind of guy who normally has a problem with police — I’ve never even gotten a speeding ticket. But I’m bothered by the sudden increase in the number of citations Excise has been handing out for alcohol violations.

Last weekend, Excise issued a record 285 citations. Monroe County Prosecutor Chris Gaal said that his office “can’t determine any reason” for the increase.

For comparison, Excise issued 158 citations during Little 500 weekend in 2010.

Last year, Excise launched its Intensified College Enforcement program, drastically increasing its presence in college towns such as Bloomington.

As it happens, the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office pays for 37 percent of its expenses with funds from the Pre-Trial Diversion program, which first-time alcohol offenders cited by Excise pay to attend.

That’s a difficult number to ignore, and I’m concerned it incentivizes excessively aggressive enforcement.

I have talked to underage students who have been cited for possession while driving 21-year-old friends home from liquor stores or for public intoxication while getting a sober ride home from a party.

These students’ actions are illegal. But do they really pose a public safety threat or a public nuisance? Are they really worth a large diversion of police resources?

When an officer follows two students to their car from a liquor store, asks for their identification and cites one for underage possession of alcohol, he instills a deep mistrust of law enforcement in a young person who probably didn’t even know he was breaking the law.

Excise has stated that the goal of its stepped-up enforcement is to “essentially change behavior” related to underage drinking.

That’s a pretty far-fetched goal, and my guess is that most people who change their behavior will change it to avoid being caught by Excise.

But Excise can still count on issuing plenty of citations, since some of the thousands of new students who will come to campus in the fall are bound to land in trouble.

All in all, saturated and aggressive Excise enforcement at major campus events fits nicely into a pretty clever system. Excise can point to more citations, but the Prosecutor’s Office gets more funds from Pre-Trial Diversion.

In turn, unlucky students shell out $400 to walk away from their predicaments with relatively clean records.

But I have to believe that Excise can pursue more worthwhile tasks than watching who’s putting beer in their trunk at the grocery store. Maybe that would happen if more students were demanding warrants and taking their cases to court.

I’m not asking Excise to turn a blind eye to underage drinking. I’m asking them not to antagonize people in enforcing it. I can’t help but wonder if that’s the case when the number of citations issued during Little 500 weekend undergoes a shockingly rapid and sustained increase in a short amount of time and when alcohol citations provide a lucrative source of revenue for local government.

— danoconn@indiana.edu