Despite record attendance at Saturday’s game against USC, the large crowds didn’t set any violation records.
“All in all, it was a fairly calm game,” said Sgt. Mike Gilbert of Eugene police in a Sunday press release.
Eugene police ejected 79 people from the game because of alcohol violations and disorderly behavior. Of those ejected, two were arrested, one on charges of trespassing and one who already had a warrant out for arrest.
On Friday and Saturday nights, patrollers in the West University neighborhoods handed out a total of 35 citations for minor in possession and 43 for open containers.
EPD Public Information Officer Melinda Kletzok wasn’t surprised about this weekend’s relatively low numbers. “When you take into consideration the win at Autzen, the record number at the game, and the good weather, you know there’s going to be a lot of parties,” she said, “but because of proactive patrols, the numbers were lower.”
On campus, the Department of Public Safety issued 14 citations: 10 for minor in possession of alcohol and four for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
“It wasn’t as busy as we thought,” said Wendy Rouse, a dispatcher at DPS. At the South entrance to Autzen, where DPS officers patrolled Saturday, “we had ourselves only 22 ejections.”
Kletzok said she believed the University’s recent stress on alcohol education contributed to the weekend’s relatively low numbers of arrests.
“There’s a lot of information for students from the University, and there are a lot of nice programs for incoming freshmen,” she said. “It helps for people to become educated.”
Violations were especially low in comparison to Halloween weekend last year, when police handed out 189 citations for minor in possession, open container and loud noise offenses at Delta Sigma Phi’s annual Blood Dance. This year, police responded to reports of large, loud crowds outside the fraternity’s doors two times during the event, but the dance didn’t reach last year’s near-riot status.
“Quite a few people were inside the house and the alley, and police broke it up twice,” said Kletzok. She said the organizers of the event voluntarily closed their doors shortly after the second police intervention.
Weekend arrest numbers were also fairly low, Eugene police reported. Early Saturday morning, officers chased a Chevrolet Blazer packed with eight passengers down Ferry Street and stopped the driver at the corner of East 11th Avenue and Kincaid Street. The 20-year-old driver was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of intoxicants, minor in possession of alcohol, eluding by vehicle, reckless endangering, and reckless driving.
DPS found Michael Edward Sandlin, 34, riding a bicycle registered to someone else around the campus bike racks early Saturday morning. Sandlin admitted to the DPS officer who contacted him that he was carrying bolt cutters, a common tool used to cut bicycle locks, and that he was issued a letter of trespass from the University last June which excludes him from University property for 18 months. Sandlin was arrested by Eugene police and charged with criminal trespass and possession of a burglary tool.
On Saturday night, a 20-year-old Eugene man was arrested on charges of interference with a drug investigation. Police said another 20-year-old was taken into custody after he resisted arrest for charges of an open container. Police also took nine offenders into custody on charges of driving under the influence.
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Halloween weekend not ghoulish for Eugene police
Daily Emerald
October 28, 2007
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