Officers and agents of the Starkville Police Department, the Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Attorney General’s office made multiple arrests over the weekend. The main violation targeted underage drinking and establishments that sell alcohol to minors.
The SPD alone made 38 arrests on 55 violations.
Charges included violations of open container laws, sale of alcohol to minors, possession of alcohol by a minor, furnishing alcohol to a minor and presenting false information and identification.
Seven SPD officers joined four ABC agents and an agent from the Attorney General’s office for the sting.
Sergeant Shawn Word of the SPD said the minor in possession crackdown program was started locally by the SPD.
The SPD has always had a great working relationship with the ABC and the Attorney General’s office, he said.
“They help us whenever we need it; if they ask us for help, we’ll be there for them as quickly as possible. We plan on having them back,” Word said.
Numbers from last weekend’s targeted crackdown were lower than the last major operation’s due to two factors, Word said.
“The last weekend the department targeted minors in possession was in January,” Word said. “We made around 65 arrests on 77 citations then.”
The past weekend’s numbers were lower than the January weekend for two reasons, he said.
“In addition to checking bars and other drinking establishments for minors, our agents conducted what are known as buys,” Word said. “In a buy, we send in underage agents to attempt to purchase alcohol.”
More agents would have been free to focus on catching minors in possession if buys had not been conducted, he said.
The second reason was the timing of the weekend, Word said.
“There was a football game and either a lot of people were gone to it or had gone home, so there were fewer people in drinking establishments around Starkville,” he said.
This weekend’s sting and previous sting operations are due in part to a grant the SPD received from the government, Word said.
“We got a grant for overtime pay so our officers can go out and conduct this type of operation,” he said. “The grant runs out Feb. 1, so we will probably have at least one more weekend where we conduct this operation again. Our DUI grant resumes Oct. 1, so we’ll be starting to use that soon.”
Word said the SPD receives these grants and others based upon how the grants fit Starkville’s needs.
“If you want to compare Starkville to another city, you have to compare the demographics,” he said. “In other towns, the median age is somewhere around 30.”
Starkville’s median age is around 24 because of all the young people at MSU, Word said.
“That’s where our focus has to be. A lot of the problems we see stem from alcohol, whether it’s young college kids getting into fights, stealing, driving under the influence or committing property damage,” he said. “We try to look at and enforce all of the laws, but we have these grants to help emphasize certain laws that apply more to the population.”
Word said residents should expect more crackdowns in the future, and that zero tolerance for minors will be firmly enforced in Starkville.
“I think everyone who drinks underage or who sells alcohol to minors knows that it is against the law,” he said. “Minors drink because they want to party and for all of the other reasons that some people drink in a college town. I just wish they would stop and think a bit longer about the ramifications of their actions.”
If the SPD finds minors drinking in any Starkville establishment, they will be issued a citation, Word said.