E.L. police to increase patrols during MSU football game days

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The East Lansing Police Department hopes to decrease alcohol-related traffic accidents on football Saturdays by teaming with the Ingham Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition to increase road patrols on game days.

The goal of the measure is to crack down on the percentage of the East Lansing community that endangers others by driving drunk, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said.

“Most of our public doesn’t drive drunk, but there’s a small portion of our population that just doesn’t get it, and if people are going to drive drunk even though they know the consequences, then the only answer is more enforcement,” he said.

The intent is to spread awareness rather than land people in jail, said Harriett Dean, a prevention specialist at the Ingham Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.

“It isn’t about getting people in trouble; it isn’t about how many DUI’s we can come up with — the goal is to raise awareness of the fact that it is a problem,” she said. “People might say, ‘I’m going to watch myself,’ or ‘We’re going to have a designated driver.’ It’s totally an awareness piece.”

The additional patrols, which will be funded by a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant, are focusing on MSU home football games because of the increased concentration of people and drinking, Wibert said. With about 76,0000 additional people in East Lansing during home games, the potential for accidents is higher on game days than any other day in the fall, he said.

During the 2008 MSU football season, there were three alcohol-related car crashes in East Lansing that occurred on home game days, data from Michigan Traffic Crash Facts showed. Of the five days the MSU football team had away games, there was one alcohol-related crash that occurred.

The coalition chose game days by considering when the highest concentration of people and traffic would be in the MSU community, and not necessarily because data showed there were more alcohol-related accidents during that time, Dean said.

The additional patrols could be especially beneficial to the East Lansing community at the start of the school year, when students might push the limits more than later in the year, first year zoology graduate student Katherine Alexander said.

“People let themselves go a little more — it’s kind of like the first time driving in the snow,” she said. “This is kind of like a refresher.”

Tailgating before football games has become a staple not just at MSU, but at college campuses across the country, making it necessary to ensure people are celebrating responsibly and avoiding the negative consequences of heavy drinking, Dean said.

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