ASU Semester Starts Off With a Bang -- 371 Arrests in Three Days by Alcohol Task Force

It appears that there has been no shortage of alcohol-related high jinks in Tempe in advance of the new semester.Classes start today, and the Tempe Police Department has been running a "Safe and Sober" campaign, with an emphasis on alcohol-related crimes. The result: 371 arrests in three days...

By Matthew Hendley

August 22, 2013

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It appears that there has been no shortage of alcohol-related high jinks in Tempe in advance of the new semester.

Classes start today, and the Tempe Police Department has been running a "Safe and Sober" campaign, with an emphasis on alcohol-related crimes. The result: 371 arrests in three days.

UPDATE August 27: In week two, the same task force arrested 486 people. Click here for more details.

(Heads up to ASU students: This same task force will be out again tonight through Saturday night.)

Although not every single one of these arrests involved ASU students, you have to imagine that most of them were.

And with help from seven different police departments -- eight, including Tempe PD -- here are the stats Tempe PD sent us this morning:

Total stops: 1,421
Total citations: 867
Total arrests: 371
Minor in possession of alcohol arrests: 111
Total DUI arrests: 91
Total calls for loud parties: 54
Extreme DUIs: 17
Nuisance notices: 16
DUIs for drugs: 14
Party notices, with minors in possession of alcohol: 14
DUI under the age of 21: 6
Minor in possession of alcohol, under the age of 18: 5
Aggravated DUI: 2
Average blood-alcohol level of DUI suspects: .131
Partridge in a pear tree: 1

If the youngsters keep this up, maybe they'll earn back their party-school reputation.

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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.

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