On Saturday night of Halloween weekend, the Boston University Police Department added six more officers to their street patrol in order to curb an increase of alcohol related crimes.
The addition seems to have had an impact on reducing crime, but not on decreasing underage alcohol abuse, said BUPD captain Robert Molloy.
“It was nothing like last year,” Molloy said in response to the amount of crimes that occurred over the weekend. “We didn’t see as many people transporting alcohol underage this year probably because there were so many police out on motorcycles and foot.”
While the arrests for illegally transporting alcohol on the streets decreased, the number of student alcohol transports to the hospital increased from previous years.
From Thursday to Sunday night there were 16 student alcohol transports, the majority occurring Saturday night, according to BUPD reports.
“Saturday was the busiest night with 11 ambulance transports,” Molloy said. “Friday was busy too, a lot of people were just walking around the streets and we had four transports that night.”
Last year on Halloween weekend there were only 11 hospital transports total, with five in 2008, and none in 2007, according to BUPD statistics.
“The university has been more upfront on alcohol education and we’ve doubled our patrols on weekend nights to curb underage drinking,” Molloy said about the increase in transports. “Plus we’re looking for it more often than we have in previous years.”
Students noticed the larger number of patrols as they headed to the streets for Halloween festivities.
“The police were out everywhere,” said Olivia Zeolla, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Halloween is just an excuse for students to dress like sluts and go out every night. The police realized that fact and took advantage of it.”
However, some students believe that the extra police presence was unnecessary.
“The police were pretty ridiculous,” said Molly Koweek, a freshman in the College of Communication. “I understand that they have to keep the peace, but it seemed like they were out to ruin all Halloween fun.”
However, some returning BU students said they didn’t notice anything different this year safety-wise.
“Honestly, I didn’t notice any increase in police force over the weekend,” said CAS senior Vanessa Hill. “There are always a ton of police officers patrolling on Halloween and it seemed the same as every other year.”
Despite the increase in alcohol abuse over the weekend, Molloy said he doesn’t think students use Halloween “as a means to behave recklessly.”
“There are just a lot of social events and parties which mean more people are drinking,” he said. “With the more people that drink there are more people drinking too much so we have a greater issue with intoxicated students.”
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