Tempe Police made 507 arrests at the start of the semester during a three-week enforcement operation to combat the seasonal increase of alcohol-related activity and traffic accidents.
The City of Tempe and Tempe Police released a summary of the annual Back to School initiative Tuesday.
This year, Tempe experienced an increase in enforcement arrests, which are made to prevent other serious alcohol-related crimes such as car accidents and sexual assaults, according to the report.
“The goal is, if we can get to that party early and if it needs to be shut down because of a large number of people and underage drinking then we’ll prevent more serious crimes from occurring,” Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal said.
According to the summary, the agencies and enforcement divisions involved in the crime sweep were Tempe Police’s Party Patrol and Gang Unit, East Valley DUI Task Force and the ACTION (Attacking Crime Trends in Our Neighborhoods) Team.
The Party Patrol made 16 arrests in addition to issuing 16 citations and 22 loud party notices, according to the summary.
Last year, the Party Patrol made 87 arrests and issued 27 loud party notices.
Patrol officers, ACTION Team and the Party Patrol handled 102 service calls for loud parties this year. Of those calls, 175 minor-in-consumption citations were handed out to underage drinkers.
“We’re not saying people can’t get together and enjoy themselves,” Carbajal said. “We want people to be responsible and lawful when it comes to those gatherings.”
Carbajal said the enforcement isn’t just designed to educate University students but also students and parents from surrounding high schools and elementary schools.
The Back to School Operation aims to educate students and parents from all Tempe schools on safety around drunk drivers, according to the report.
The East Valley DUI Task Force made 750 vehicle stops and made 195 arrests and handled 147 DUI violations.
The total number of citations handed out during the back-to-school enforcement was 544, with 413 of those coming from the DUI Task Force.
Carbajal said in addition to increasing enforcement at the beginning of every school year, police also increase enforcement at the end of each semester to combat the same alcohol-related incidents during graduation celebrations.
“It’s things that we’ve seen year after year with enforcement that we do,” Carbajal said. “The challenge is to just stay on top of those things, set the tone early and continue to be consistent through out the year.”
Reach the reporter at sraymund@asu.edu
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