Underage drinking on football Saturdays: Police crackdown in Ann Arbor led to crime spike

An Ann Arbor police officer writes a ticket in the middle of a city street as students party shortly before the University of Michigan football game against Michigan State last October. City officials say a crackdown on underage drinking and open intoxicants is to blame for last year's reported increase in crime.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

Ann Arbor officials now say a recent increase in crimes reported in the city can be attributed to a police crackdown on underage drinking and open intoxicants on University of Michigan football Saturdays — not a growing criminal element.

Absent ramped-up enforcement efforts that led to hundreds of tickets, crime actually went down slightly last year, new reports from the Ann Arbor Police Department show.

The police department last month released a report showing total crimes in Ann Arbor increased by about 2.6 percent in 2010. The stats showed major crimes known as Part 1 crimes were down slightly, but lesser serious Part 2 crimes had gone up from 4,459 to 4,688.

The scene before the U-M vs. MSU football game in Ann Arbor last October.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

Mayor John Hieftje, who points out crime has been on a downward trend in Ann Arbor for the last decade, said those 229 extra Part 2 crimes from last year are attributable to a grant-funded project to target underage drinking and open intoxicants on football weekends, and the number of tickets written for those offenses increased dramatically in 2010.

"The police now and then will choose to be more proactive on certain issues and that's a pretty good time because they're out on the streets anyway on football weekends," Hieftje said. "So this was enforcement they chose to do, and it sure did produce results.

"We let a lot of people know you can't walk around the streets with open alcohol containers."

The new reports from the police department show there were 78 more tickets issued for underage drinking in 2010 — up from 284 to 362. There also were 288 more tickets issued for open intoxicants — up from 154 to 442, records show.

The City Council will have to make difficult decisions about public safety in Ann Arbor before the month is over. The council will meet Monday to consider a two-year budget that includes cutting 25 positions in the police department over the next two years.

Under the first round of cuts, 13 positions in the police department would be eliminated effective July 1, including two vacant dispatch positions, one vacant telecommunicator position, one vacant police professional assistant position and one vacant officer position. Five officers, two dispatchers and one police service specialist would be laid off.

The police department has 124 sworn officers, including Police Chief Barnett Jones, who also serves as the city's fire chief now. Jones expressed hope recently that cuts to both police and fire can be minimized. Twelve firefighter positions are slated for elimination.

If cuts are necessary, Jones said he'll try to manage.

"On the police side, we have been able to shift personnel from non-patrol functions to patrol functions to keep our numbers up," he said, "and I'll be looking to try to do that as best I can."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's e-mail newsletters.