You might not want to party too loud this weekend. Ball State police are teaming up with state excise officers to increase patrolling during St. Patrick's Day weekend.
"Anyone who looks like they are under 26 and holding an alcoholic beverage will be stopped," said Greg Wiese, a District 2 excise police sergeant.
Wiese said officers will be stationed in the Village, downtown, on campus and at local liquor stores.
Though finding publicly intoxicated individuals or underage drinkers is not an exact science, excise officers are always looking for certain things when on patrol.
"Most of our intoxication arrests are for their own safety, because a lot of them we find passed out in somebody's yard or stumbling through the streets," he said.
Following the flow of student traffic in less populated areas is also a good indication of underage drinking and public intoxication.
"All you have to do is be observant and watch where people are going," University Police Department Chief Gene Burton said. "That's probably the easiest thing right there. An observant officer will find out where the parties are just by watching where the students are going, where the traffic flow is and certain houses that people tend to be frequenting."
Due to the new Intensified College Enforcement program, excise officers in Muncie are now working with more enforcement, which is the product of a grant that pays for the overtime of the Excise Police force. While they are police officers, they are also specialized in alcohol and tobacco enforcement.
"Our main objective over the years has been to enforce the alcoholic beverage laws throughout the state of Indiana," Wiese said. "We're here to assist the local law enforcement with drinking individuals and alcoholic beverage situations, whether they're good or bad."
Alcohol arrests increase during busy holidays such as St. Patrick's Day. More than a third of motor vehicle fatalities on St. Patrick's Day involve drivers that have been drinking over the legal limit, according tho a recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Wiese said these type of statistics make it important for police to concentrate their efforts on high traffic areas, especially near the university.
"We're going to be patrolling areas where a lot of the college students are, where the parties are or where other social events are included in the college campus life," he said.
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