Police security increased for the Howl, so did alcohol arrests
USU/SA hosted the annual Howl Halloween party in the Taggart Student Center on Saturday.
All 6,000 tickets were sold. Attendees listened to Luna Luna, Shiny Toy Guns and had their fortune told.
Student Klint Cardinal, a freshman majoring in biology attending the Howl for the first time, said it held up to his expectation.
“I’m really good friends with Thomas Rodgers, who is the student in charge of the dances,” Cardinal said. “So I expected a lot cause he hyped it up a lot, so I expected it to be the ‘biggest Halloween party west of the Mississippi,’ and it looks like it is.”
Sydney Curtis, a sophomore majoring in human and family life development, had a simpler reason for attending.
“I like dressing up,” Curtis said.
Despite the festivities, police arrested 30 party-goers.
According to Sgt. Travis Dunn of the USU Police Department, the amount of arrests increased dramatically this year compared to the previous two.
“In 2011 there was 23 arrests, none of which were students,” Dunn said. “In 2012 there were 22 arrests and three were students, and this year there were 30 arrests, which include some from undercover state police, and eight arrests were students.”
In previous years, USU Police and Logan city Police attended the event. The Cache County Sheriff and Utah Highway Patrol joined forces to provide extra security this year.
All of the arrests were linked to alcohol.
“There were 20 incidents pertaining to alcohol laws, intoxication, MIP with alcohol, disturbing the peace,” Dunn said. “Some of the incidents you have more than one arrest, so we had 30 arrests in 20 incidents.”
Student volunteers were encouraged to deal with any problems, including MIPs. However, if there was an issue the students could not handle, police stepped in.
Not all of the arrests were peaceful. At approximately 11 p.m., a man in boxer briefs and a fake Native American headdress was escorted by Dunn to the temporary police headquarters on the second floor of the TSC.
The subject in question was underage and drinking. He was asked to come peacefully with the police, but the subject tried to run.
“We were in a wrestling match prior to that,” Dunn said. “He was under arrest and he tried to run. Resiting arrest is another class B misdemeanor. He just bought a ticket to go to jail. He was just an underage drinker that wanted to try to fight to resist arrest and just run.”
Being almost dragged halfway through the TSC tends to get students’ attention, according to Kevin Bial, a senior majoring in technology engineering and education.
“I have no idea what he was doing,” Bial said. “Obviously he was doing something he shouldn’t be doing. If you break the law, you’re going to get caught and arrested. That’s what’s going to happen. There’s a lot more drunk people here that probably won’t be caught, you just see it. The cops can’t figure out who’s drunk and who’s not when everyone’s in the crowd. I figure you have to be really, really drunk to get in trouble.”
Jacob Scott, a lead volunteer majoring in communication studies, said the biggest difficulty he faced was dealing with the number of students.
An incident he dealt with involved a man wearing a Teletubbie suit who had been drinking. Within 40 seconds five police officers arrived, followed by three more officers.
The subject in question was escorted to the police headquarters and received a misdemeanor and a $1,000 fine.
“I was talking to one kid, and he said that we expect about 15 arrests every year,” said Kiri Higham, a junior studying graphic design and a first-year volunteer. “So to me, it’s not a huge surprise. It seems like you just get a group of crazy ones every once in a while.”
Dunn and many volunteers hoped that seeing both students and non-students being arrested would make an impression on what is and is not acceptable behavior.
“I hope it has a good influence on them, because I think most of the arrests that particular night didn’t get put in handcuffs,” Dunn said. “We were very cooperative. We were nice. We asked them to come peacefully. It’s just the uncooperative ones that got put in handcuffs.”
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