“87 arrests, now that’s the Oxford we know,” commented Facebook user Kristen Carsley on the Oxford Police Department’s Activity Report from the LSU game weekend. The Activity Report listed 87 arrests, with 25 of the arrests being Driving Under the Influence.
In comparison to the Arkansas home game weekend, which only had 15 arrests, Chief of Police Jeff McCutchen said the LSU game attracted the largest crowd they had seen in six to seven years.
“I think some of those numbers have to do with the fact that obviously it was our largest crowd,” McCutchen said.
The LSU game was not the only event taking place this weekend. Fall Visit Day attracted high school students from all over the country to tour the University of Mississippi on Friday, while Square Jam attracted visitors and students later that night to the Oxford Square.
“On any ballgame weekend, we’re all working,” McCutchen said. “I mean, it’s everybody.”
After the Arkansas game the Oxford Police Department implemented a staffing change, intentionally assigning officers to certain “hot spots” around Oxford, allowing officers to work in certain locations and rotate out throughout the day.
“We got through the third and fourth quarter and then handled post-game traffic, and we still had all that fresh staff to give assistance on the square,” McCutchen said.
The largest portion of the arrests this weekend consisted of 25 DUI’s, the most Oxford has seen for a long period of time. McCutchen explained that a 2:30 p.m. kickoff gives people the opportunity to go out on the Square on Friday night while still making it to the Grove in order to drink on Saturday as well.
“It’s a perfect storm for things to happen in the alcohol realm,” McCutchen said.
Even though Arrest and Report numbers were high this weekend, McCutchen agreed that people generally handled themselves well.
“I thought the way that our fans and our students handled themselves was great. We had a lot of good interaction, a lot of good conversation out there,” he said.
McCutchen mentioned that even though ride shares and taxis were running this weekend, Safe Ride is another transportation system that is able to help students to get home safely. Safe Ride, led and organized by students, uses Oxford University Transit to provide late night transportation on Thursday-Saturday nights from the Square to campus.
“Don’t feel like you don’t have any options,” McCutchen said. “That’s one of the big things that we’re that we’re trying to remind people of.”
In response to how arrest numbers will look in the future, McCutchen hopes that students and residents remember that drinking and driving is a controllable problem.
“We can do a better job of not drinking and driving. I think that’s a great recipe for a fun weekend for everybody,” McCutchen said.
