The Eugene Police Department and the Department of Public Safety used special measures to monitor the campus area at the start of fall term and around Halloween due to an increase in criminal behavior in the past. And as students move into a three-day weekend, EPD and DPS are bracing for another batch of heightened party crime.
But what about the rest of the year? What times during a term are heightened for party crimes, and at which times do police get a breather?
“Nicer weather brings out more parties,” Eugene Police Officer Aaron Dressler said. “And we see a lot of parties the weekend before school resumes after there’s been an extended break like winter or spring break.”
This means that this week there may be an influx of police as students have now returned from a month-long break. As a member of many party patrol shifts, Dressler experienced these fluctuations firsthand. He has also done research on the subject, looking at the numbers of arrests and citations given during different months throughout the 2010-2011 year.
“September was insane,” Dressler said. “We cited approximately 500 people in September 2010.” This was quite an increase from the 200 citations and arrests in August.
“September and October are always crazy,” he said. “Football season has a lot to do with it.”
The trends he saw showed increases right before and after spring break, as the warmer weather also brought out more activity.
“Patterns are similar from year to year,” Dressler said. “There’s a lull in the colder winter months, and it appears as if in April and May things start to climb back up.”
The most common incident types are alcohol-related.
“In October 2011, there were around 200 open containers and 200 MIPs given out,” Dressler said.
With football season over and the cold winter months here, the statistics say that this term should be relatively quiet. But Monday morning classes will tell the results of this weekend.