Alcohol citations have doubled

Underage drinking citations given by Chapel Hill police have more than doubled from last year as the department cracks down on alcohol violations.

From Aug. 1 to Sept. 28, 65 underage drinking citations were issued, more than twice last year’s 29 citations during the same period, according to Chapel Hill Police Department data.

The jump comes as officers increase the intensity of their patrols since noticing a rise in alcohol poisonings locally, officer Mitch McKinney said.

He also cited a 2007 call to action from the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General for officers to combat underage drinking.

Police said the pressure to crack down has not come from the University.

“We are stepping up our enforcement levels from what we are seeing,” Chapel Hill police Lt. Kevin Gunter said.

To combat overdoses, Chapel Hill police assigned 14 officers to the recently created Alcohol Law Enforcement Response Team, McKinney said.

The team was formed in February by the Chapel Hill Police Department and the Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Free Teenagers of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

Some officers in the response team patrol out of uniform, McKinney said.

The ALERT task force is different from the Alcohol Law Enforcement agency which frequently works with the Chapel Hill Police Department, Gunter said.

The ALE covers the entire state and focuses on preventing the sale of alcohol to minors. ALERT focuses on issuing underage drinking citations in Orange County, Gunter said.

A busy weekend

The bulk of this semester’s citations, and the time when the ALERT team was at its busiest, came during the weekend of Sept. 18 to Sept. 20, which included the UNC-East Carolina football game, Gunter said.

That weekend, 15 people were cited for consuming alcoholic beverages underage, and 24 people were cited for underage possession, including eight members of The Daily Tar Heel’s staff and three members of the swimming team, reports state.

Two home football games were played in the same time period this year and in 2008, but last year did not see a similar spike in citations.

What brings the cops

Gunter said any type of 911 call will bring police to a party scene — including parked vehicle violations.

“Other than noise complaints, if we see a lot of vehicle traffic, we will check for expired registration,” McKinney said.

He said police will use the expired registration as cause to find the owner of the car, potentially coming across underage drinking.

Gunter said reactions of underage students differ when they are caught drinking.

“In some cases they are very cooperative,” Gunter said. “Other times they complain. Sometimes they say, ‘You are wasting your time.’ When they complain, they need to know its against the law in North Carolina, and we need to enforce it.”

Gunter said the money from citations comes through the Orange County courts and goes to the state.


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