Impact of Drinking Tickets
This year the talk round the East Carolina campus has been the major crack down on under age drinking which is evident by the number citations that have been given down town.
The thing to do on the weekends at East Carolina University, for most students is to go downtown to the clubs and to parties all over Greenville. But this year things have changed a little. Since the beginning of school there have been more police present downtown and they have become much stricter on underage drinking and giving out citations.
“I still go downtown and to parties, I’m just more careful where the cops are at and try to hide it more often,” said freshman Kimberlee Kraft, who got a ticket for underage drinking this year.
It does not seem to faze all of the students here on campus, but it has had an impact on some of them.
“I’m scared of getting a ticket, so I have yet to go down town,” said freshman Emily King.
This crack down on under age drinking is obviously working. From Aug. 15 through Oct. 1 there have been about 123 alcohol related tickets given out. This is double the amount of tickets that were given out by this time last year.
The students of ECU were not warned about what was going to happen this year. The East Carolina University Police, the Greenville Police, and the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC), have teamed up in what they call the “task force.”
The task force’s job is to help reduce the amount of nuisance calls in neighborhoods and loud noise calls about parties. They have raised the number of underage citations. Overall the task force wants to increase the quality of life on campus and around Greenville and decrease the crime on and around campus.
“Alcohol is involved in almost all crimes on and off campus, from robbery to rape,” said Major Frank Knight of the East Carolina University Police Force.
The primary reason for the recent crack down is that East Carolina University has a zero tolerance policy for under age drinking. Another reason is to decrease downtown parking lot crime, assault, and vandalism.
“The number of citations and presence of officers is helping to reduce crime. It is helping decrease underage drinking, reduce crime in the downtown parking lots, reduce of assaults on and around campus,” said Major Knight.
“I haven’t really noticed any changes because I don’t go downtown that much, but I have noticed a change in hearing about more people getting tickets,” said sophomore Brandon Mathis.
Students have different opinions on whether all of the citations are helping in the long run.
“I think that it’s a good thing because some people drink way too much and it can be dangerous and bad for you. People shouldn’t be allowed to drink underage and lots of people need to learn what’s acceptable and what isn’t,” said Mathis.
Some students are not sure what to think, “I think it’s kind of helping because some people don’t want to go out as often, but at the same time people are just trying to get sneaky with [drinking] and try to hide it,” said King.
Other students are just flat out against it. “I think that it’s hurting because students try to drink more as a thrill from hiding from the cops,” said Kraft.
The increase in police enforcement is not going to stop any time soon. In fact it may even increase.
There are proposals to place identification scanners in the clubs and bars downtown, which would be able to detect whether or not the identification used is fake by pulling data from the card. Also there may be more undercover officers downtown to find out who is selling alcohol to underage patrons.
“We have a two - step approach in this. The first is enforcement and the second is education to deter underage drinking,” said Major Knight.
Whatever the student reaction, it appears from the determination of the police and the city that the underage drinking crackdown has just begun.
Filed under: Hard News