Halloween weekend, underage students will dress in their best costumes, hoping to add the appearance of maturity in age, in eager anticipation of joining the festivities at parties or bars.
Underage drinking is the Athens Police Department's biggest issue, according to a previous Post report,and with many participants on big weekends like Halloween, underage drinking is expected.
“We don’t have a quota, we never will,” APD Chief of Police Nick Magruder said. “As officers, we use our own discretion on making a determination on if charges are warranted or not.”
APD will be patrolling populated streets like Mill, Palmer and Congress, along with Court Street. Magruder said he anticipates students to start the night at house parties and eventually make their way up to the bars.
“There are some years where it seems like we don't have a big crowd go to the event area and then there are some years where it just seems like everyone's making their way there and then they don't have the house parties,” Magruder said. “We'll have foot teams on both portions.”
In the past, house parties have been shut down due to the actions of surrounding students, Magruder said. Little things like public urination and litter could be the issue that ends the fun.
“Most of the time it's people that aren't associated with the party,” Magruder said. “(It’s) just loud, out of control partygoers and people that have been throwing stuff in the streets, people that are fighting, they have underage people there, or have intoxicated people.”
One of the most prevalent issues APD deals with, which usually hints at a student's age and predicts a charge, is obvious and public intoxication.
“(It’s) people that are so intoxicated when they can’t take care of themselves,” Magruder said. “People that are truly misbehaving in the bars or someone that has an open container or draws attention to themselves.”
Mia DeAngelis, a third-year student studying marketing and an employee at The Crystal at 34 N. Court St., said underage students are a liability to the bar and don’t tip well, so when the police enter the bars it’s beneficial because they leave almost immediately.
The Crystal has college-aged kids bouncing the door and they don’t know what different state-issued IDs look like, DeAngelis said.
“Even since my freshman year, the cops would normally come in on the big weekends,” DeAngelis said. “However, they've been coming in more frequently, like every weekend.”
APD has been hearing that they’ve had stronger enforcement this year, but Magruder said that this is only because the number of people on staff has increased.
“We have a younger group of officers that may be a little bit more proactive in taking care of some of the things that are causing issues at night,” Magruder said.
Magruder said he had heard rumors of a liquor lock, which is when police lock people in a bar to check everyone’s IDs. He was quick to say that the rumor was false and would involve many legal issues.
Every APD officer without another obligation, will be patrolling on Halloween weekend. APD will also be accompanied by reserve and mounted units and even out-of-town foot units, Magruder said.
APD and OUPD have joint brief meetings well before big weekends to discuss plans, OUPD Staff Lieutenant Tim Ryan said.
“People can expect to see more foot patrols and more people out and about and that applies pretty universally for the local agencies,” Ryan said.
Ryan said this will be his 19th Halloween with OUPD and that there haven’t been a lot of problems on Halloween that don’t involve alcohol.
OUPD also pushes the See Something, Say Something campaign in cases of concerned stalking.
“We're always asking people if they think there's a problem that there probably is and to give us a call,” Ryan said. “We're happy to come out and check out whatever someone is concerned about.”
