With Oktoberfest 2013 now over,
UW-L police reflect on what went smoothly and not so smoothly.
“This year we issued roughly 400
alcohol-related tickets, and 350 of them were from a three-block radius,” notes
UW La Crosse Police Sergeant Scott McCullough.
The area of student housing between
West Ave. and 15th Street, and from Vine Street north to La Crosse
Street, is always the most problematic. Tickets for open container and underage
drinking are the most commonly issued. “Overall, though, the number of arrests
and detoxes were about the same as last year, which was down significantly from
the year before.”
2012 was the first year when
non-resident visitors were not permitted to stay in student housing during
Oktoberfest. UW-L PD says the decline in arrests from two years ago is directly
related to outsiders not being in the dorms, unlike years past.
“We didn’t see anything like
dead-squirrel fights this year,” McCullough jokes. “And, incidentally, none of
the cars that were tipped-over occurred in the UW-L PD area of responsibility.
Those incidents happened off-campus.”
University Police are not only
responsible for the UW-L grounds. Their jurisdiction extends to any adjacent
student housing directly connected to campus by side streets.
As all UW-L police are sworn
Wisconsin State peace officers, they have the same powers and authority as any
other law enforcement agency. A common misconception among young students is
that campus police are not “real cops.” Big mistake— they are.
In many cases, such as Oktoberfest,
a reciprocity arrangement exists between city and campus police. This allows both
forces to overlap jurisdictions and provide the most effective coverage of the
event.
