Beyond their typical patrol on crowded weekend nights, local police have been using alternative techniques lately.

Since the beginning of the school year, Meridian Township police have been coordinating with the East Lansing Police Department and the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office to run a series of plain clothes operations in the area.

Meridian Township police Sgt. Scott Dawson said the departments have been patrolling local streets, bars, and convenience stores to curb underage alcohol consumption.

“(Officers) are going around in the county and checking restaurants or liquor stores for either people buying or selling alcohol to minors,” Dawson said. “We’ll go into a bar undercover and see if there is anybody there that looks underage and ID them.”

Dawson said these types of projects help spread the word to students that police are actively patrolling locations where alcohol typically runs freely.

“We’re hoping to educate them that we’re actually looking for it,” he said. “Part of it is prevention by the threat of something happening.”

On campus, MSU police use a mixture of proactive messages and direct patrol to discourage binge drinking.

“During the summer, we participate with the admissions office and (the Academic Orientation Program),” MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said. “We have officers who speak at parent orientation, and one of the things that we cover is alcohol.”

The department also uses several community patrol tactics to reduce excess alcohol consumption.

Behind the bar

Since 1998, East Lansing police have been working closely with the Responsible Hospitality Council to set management practices that most area liquor establishments follow — including 21st birthday policies, intoxicated person guidelines and keeping closer watch on the number of drinks consumed.

The result has been a more educated bar staff, more cognizant students and a more inviting downtown area, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said.

“The situation downtown has definitely gotten safer,” Wibert said. “More people are being cut off now than ever before. It’s more difficult to use a fake ID than ever before, and there’s an excellent network of communication between the bars.”

Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave., general manager Christian Dorsch said the council’s guidelines not only taught local staff, but informed patrons that area bars won’t tolerate overly inebriated people.

“What I’ve noticed is after having an established RHC and having a mass education to the consumer, there has been a positive change of psychology of going out and having a great time but not taking it to so far of an extreme intoxication state because the venues have strong rules,” Dorsch said.

Another school day

While it’s not a cure-all for binge drinking, one psychology professor thinks he has an answer as to how to partially curb alcohol consumption without police aid — and it’s not going to make MSU’s famous night owls smile.

A study co-authored by University of Missouri Professor Phillip K. Wood in July concluded that college students enrolled in Friday classes beginning at 8 a.m. or earlier consumed about half as much alcohol on Thursdays as those without class on Fridays. Students without early Friday classes also were up to 15 percent more likely to binge drink on Thursdays.

While the results were enough for Wood to recommend universities make efforts to require more early Friday classes, he cautions that these results are only part of the solution.

“The effects of early Friday classes are dramatic but not a magic pill,” Wood said. “Early classes are not going to solve the drinking problem.”

Early to rise Fridays

At the University of Iowa, administrators have taken notice of Wood’s work and are in the process of requiring more classes to extend the school week.

“We made the decision during the summer that we’d like to head in that direction,” said Tom Rocklin, the University of Iowa senior associate provost for undergraduate education.

“We’re going to target classes that enroll a lot of incoming students and ones with attendance requirement,” Rocklin said.

Hawkeye faculty have been tight-lipped about the change, Rocklin said, but students have been more vocal in their displeasure.

“Faculty have generally been pretty quiet about it,” Rocklin said. “Students have been less happy about the idea, and I understand that we have a long history here of not scheduling as many classes on Fridays as we do on other days. That’s something students are going to have to adjust to.”

City officials, MSU administrators, students and other community members made a recommendation to the university in 1998 to encourage that departments offer and require more Friday classes.

The recommendation was not based on Wood’s research, and numerous school officials said they were not aware of the report.

“From what we’ve been told from students, if they have important academic work to tend to, then they tend to reduce their alcohol consumption on Thursdays,” said Becky Allen, a health educator at Olin Health Center.

A constant battle

Even as the university and local police continue to convey anti-alcohol messages and patrol the area, marketing senior Bernard Gomiz said they are fighting an uphill battle.

“If they take any measures, it’s nothing that matters since whenever people want to drink, they will find any way to do it no matter what,” Gomiz said.

For all the prevention presentations MSU police deliver year-round, McGlothian-Taylor said the task of taking messages to heart rests solely in the hands of students.

“I think any time that we can get the information out to the individuals, it’s a good thing,” she said.

While the police department works to educate young people about the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption, Dawson said local police are severely limited by the lack of effective messages.

“It’s really hard to convince a 21-year-old that he shouldn’t be buying his 20-year-old friend beer,” Dawson said.