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St. Cloud State University
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Few arrests over weekend
By Carol Seavey
Published:
Monday, October 21, 2002
The St. Cloud Police Department and SCSU Public Safety Department were pleased that there were so few incidences homecoming weekend.
“It was great,” said director of Public Safety, Miles Heckendorn. “The numbers of calls for immediate response were down and there were fewer numbers of alcohol incidences.”
The SCPD also reported fewer serious crimes. A handful of people were ticketed for disorderly conduct, but none for assault or DUIs.
“Probably the reason there was so few serious crimes is because we stayed on top of it early,” St. Cloud Police Chief Dennis Ballantine, “trying to address the core of it for that evening, which was excessive alcohol use.”
Excessive alcohol use leads to more serious crimes.
The state troopers had just one DWI in the St. Cloud area that weekend.
The majority of tickets were given for minor consumption of alcohol, minor possession alcohol, or for having open containers on sidewalks.
“There were some people that were drinking and unruly,” Ballantine said. “But, for the most part, they were very friendly; I was pleased with it.”
Ballantine said that most students saw the potential for problems and wanted to avoid getting fined and arrested.
“You’ve got to give credit to the SCSU students,” Ballantine said, “for the most part they celebrated responsibly.”
Heckendorn also attributes homecoming running smoothly to the number of events available to students.
“A lot of planning went into it on and off campus,” Heckendorn said. “By and large the students were very well behaved.”
Some students were upset that after bar closing time the streets weren’t blocked off so people could hang around in the street. However, they moved on without any trouble.
Public drunkenness is not a criminal violation in Minnesota, but Ballantine said he wishes it was.
“That, to me, is a great enforcement tool because then you’ve got the power to get somebody off the street before they do harm to themselves or someone else,” Ballantine said.
There were a lot of extra SCPD officers on duty homecoming weekend so it is difficult to compare it to other weekends.
“If we put that number of police officers on the streets every weekend night our numbers may not be a whole lot different,” Ballantine said. “It would be nice if we’d reach the point where we could save the tax payers a lot of money and I wouldn’t put a lot of officers out.”
“We’re probably a ways from that yet.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t improve,” Heckendorn said.
Heckendorn also said he would like to put an end to “beer and breakfast” at the bars, which starts early in the morning.
