Police officers were out in force Thursday evening to start another weekend campaign of Safe and Sober with an estimated 85 officers on hand to to keep the peace in the 2-mile radius surrounding the Tempe campus.
The target of this weekend's campaign are DUIs and underage drinking, along with helping deter any violence that may happen in the area.
Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal spoke about the continuation of Operation Safe and Sober and what they hope to achieve this weekend.
"The Safe and Sober campaign will continue until we see a significant decrease in arrests," he said.
Officers have been receiving more calls for violence than in the past and the increased presence this weekend is hoping to lower those calls, Carbajal said.
The campaign will begin earlier in the day on Saturday to be ready for crowds as the Sun Devils take on Wisconsin in football, he said.
"We will be starting earlier Saturday in order to have everything in place by kickoff," he said.
Local restaurants will work with police to stop underage drinking and disorderly behavior, and officers will watch out for bar owners waving them down, Carbajal said. He said he wanted to be clear on who and what they were looking for while patrolling Tempe this weekend.
"We are not targeting students," he said. "We are targeting criminal behavior."
Reach the reporter at jshanco2@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @joey_hancock
