Greencastle is one of three college communities targeted by Indiana State Excise Police's newly launched initiative, Intensified College Enforcement or ICE, designed to reduce underage drinking.
The program, created by the Indiana State Excise Police and the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, will place Excise officers in plainclothes and uniforms in locations where underage possession or consumption of alcohol is more likely to occur.
Plainclothes officers will monitor bars, restaurants, liquor stores, grocery stores and other businesses that sell alcoholic beverages.
ICE began Feb. 6 and will continue through the end of the spring semester at DePauw, Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. and Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. The program determined target areas based off of results from a student survey.
"They said that they asked students to complete a survey and then went from there in selecting their target areas," said Cindy Babington, vice president for student life. "They are targeting the most significant pockets of underage drinking for extra enforcement."
According to the Indiana State Excise Police, the ICE initiative is intended to "expand previous efforts to reduce underage possession and use of alcohol in these communities." The main offenses that the initiative will target include illegal possession and consumption of alcohol, providing alcohol to minors, possession and use of fake IDs and driving while under the influence of alcohol, according to the Indiana State Excise Police website.
The program will also focus on alcohol education.
Director of Public Safety Angela Nally believes that partnering of enforcement and education are effective methods to containing the campus alcohol issues.
"We continue to be concerned about high risk drinking behaviors and the use of hard alcohol," Nally said. "We are seeing more instances where students are drinking several shots within just a few minutes, causing their blood alcohol content levels to spike. Students are reporting memory loss with functionality more frequently. This is concerning because intoxicated subjects are vulnerable in this state of intoxication. When and if incidents occur, they have no memory of what has happened."
According to Nally, Public Safety at DePauw is not aware how frequently the excise officers will be coming, or when they will be here.
While citations have been made since the program began in February at Ball State University and Indiana University, excise officers have not shown a strong presence at DePauw.
"I think that having excise on campus will make students more aware that underage drinking is against the law," Babington said. "The enforcement will just be another piece of holding people accountable."
A representative from the Indiana State Excise Police was not able to be reached before press time. There has also been little interaction between their office and DePauw administration. Because of this, no information was available regarding an exact increase in presence on DePauw's campus.
