DUIs spike in Oxford compared to Starkville

The Oxford Police Department recorded a total of 649 DUIs in 2014 as the first quarter of 2015 shows a similarly high number of drunk driving. (Photo: William Fowler)

By William Fowler

OXFORD, Miss. — A combination of city and student population growth, a full staff of enforcement officers and the recent success of Ole Miss athletics has contributed to a 54 percent increase in the number of Oxford DUI arrests in 2014, according to statistics provided by the Oxford Police Department.

Maj. Sheridan Maiden of OPD said it is difficult to estimate if DUIs will continue to increase depending on factors external to the police department. Oxford recorded 158 DUI arrests from January 1, 2015 through April 9, 2015. Based on this 99-day period, there will be 583 DUIs by the end of 2015 if Oxford’s DUI enforcement continues at its current pace.

Maiden said Oxford’s residential population growth and the university’s increase in student enrollment contributed to OPD’s increase in DUI enforcement. While OPD does not keep record of whether offenses are committed by Oxford residents, non-residents or Ole Miss students, Maiden was able to confirm that the majority of people pulled over and arrested for DUIs are between the ages of 18 and 27.

Maiden said DUI offenses move with the flow of traffic within the city. High traffic boulevards like Jackson Avenue, North Lamar, and South Lamar tend to see more traffic offenses including DUIs, said Maiden. These streets become even more congested with vehicles during and following events that attract major crowds into the community.

Maiden said an unusual occurrence for Oxford has been the success of both the baseball and football programs for Ole Miss and the effects these interests have on alcohol consumption and alcohol related crimes. Furthermore, OPD experienced some fluctuation in personnel in recent years, though Maiden said the department is currently working at full strength.

The increase in DUI arrests in Oxford does not correlate with DUIs on the Ole Miss campus for the last several school years, according to crime statistics provided by the University of Mississippi Police Department. Capt. Thelma Curry of UPD said the rate of DUI enforcement on campus has more to do with external forces than policing style. The home football schedule and the crowds these games attract can impact the amount of alcohol crimes committed on campus, Curry said.

On-campus alcohol related crimes tend to occur near the residential halls and are mostly committed by students, Curry said.
“When it comes to alcohol we are no different than any other college campus trying to find solutions that will significantly reduce the numbers of alcohol related incidences,” Curry said.

UM’s Assistant Director for the Office of Health Promotions Erin Cromeans said the only way to make an impactful reduction in irresponsible alcohol consumption is through what she calls the institutionalization of alcohol prevention.

Cromeans hopes her office will have strong recommendations moving forward, though she said alcohol awareness and crime prevention is not up to departments like health promotions and campus police alone.

“It will take the effort of the Ole Miss campus community as a whole to push the culture in a positive, healthy direction and that includes students,” Cromeans said. “Students who are passionate about the topic.”

Comparing Oxford and Ole Miss to other college towns and campuses in the state of Mississippi offers more perspective on how each community is handling DUIs and other alcohol related crimes under their jurisdiction.

In Starkville, Mississippi, DUI arrests remain consistently high, while there has been a significant reduction in the number of minor in possession charges, or MIPs, since 2013, according to statistics provided by the Starkville Police Department.

Lt. Shawn Word of SPD said this drop in MIPs is mostly due to personnel changes. “We had a grant that funded overtime in this area during the first three years,” Word said. “Additional personnel working nothing but MIPs is what is adding to the numbers [from 2010 to 2012].”

Oxford and Starkville police departments receive federal and state grants that are earmarked for specific initiatives like DUI and MIP enforcement. These grants are used to pay for law enforcement personnel to focus their time and energy on enforcing certain crimes in high priority areas according to Maiden.

Word said Starkville police have received DUI grants for at least the last 8 years for officers to devote more time to roadblocks and other initiatives to catch criminals and educate citizens on the dangers of drunk driving. Maiden said Oxford police have received DUI specific grants in the past in addition to other grants specified for alcohol related crimes.

For example, Maiden said he was working on a state audited compliance report for a “hotspot grant” that pays for more officers to patrol Oxford’s downtown square. According to Maiden, this one-year grant is worth $83,000 and lasts through the end of 2015.

Compared to the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University, the University of Southern Mississippi has significantly less alcohol related arrests on campus.

This is partially due to USM having a significantly smaller student population, but also because USM’s campus police department takes advantage of campus referrals without arrests at a higher rate than the other schools mentioned in this report.

Capt. Rusty Keyes at USM said the campus referral is a tool universities can use to educate students on alcohol and the law without issuing a formal arrest. When students receive a referral without an arrest they are required to visit the student conduct office on campus, though their record is protected in the process, according to Keyes.

Keyes said he and his fellow officers use their own discretion in deciding how individual situations should be handled. If a suspect is under 21 and there appears to be no behavioral issues or prior offenses, a USM student is much more likely to only receive a campus referral with no arrest recorded, according to Keyes.

From 2011 to 2013, USM’s campus police department recorded 11 arrests and 58 referrals for liquor law violations excluding public drunkenness and DUIs. The Ole Miss police department recorded just one referral and 152 arrests for the same crimes reported in the same time frame, according to the schools’ corresponding security reports.

Does alcohol actually cause sexual violence?

Photo taken during the first SlutWalk protest march against sexual violence in Toronto, Ontario on April 3, 2011. (Photo: Anton Bielousov. This photo is copyrighted by the owner and is available under public license. The owner is not liable for any damages resulting from its use.)

By William Fowler

OXFORD, Miss. — Reported sex offenses and dating violence are rising on the University of Mississippi campus, according to Capt. Thelma Curry of the University Police Department. Multiple sources said alcohol is often involved in these instances of sexual violence, though it is not a root cause.

Last Saturday at approximately 2:51 a.m., a female student reported to UPD that she was sexually assaulted in the rear parking lot of Stewart Hall, according to a “timely warning” notice issued by UPD the following morning. This instance adds to a persistent increase in reported sex offenses over the last three school years.

Lindsey Bartlett Mosvick of the Violence Prevention Office at the University of Mississippi said an increase in reported sex offenses should almost always be viewed in a positive light. Mosvick said most victims of sexual violence do not report what happened to them. An increase in reported sex offenses could be attributed to an increased trust in the disciplinary system and UPD, increased viability of sexual violence as a problem and an increase in available resources for survivors of sexual violence, Mosvick said.

In tandem with an increase in sex offenses, Curry said UPD is experiencing a rise in the Number of calls received for instances of dating violence on campus.

Dating violence, different than sex offenses, focuses on violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship or a romantic or intimate nature with the victim according to the Federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act of 1988. Sex offenses can be broadly interpreted to include any sexual act, forcible or non-forcible, directed against another person without their conscious consent, according to the Clery Act.

Curry said this increase in calls for dating violence could be attributed to the community being more prone to reporting these crimes when they occur because of public service campaigns against dating violence in recent years and new regulations for the Violence Against Women Act in 2013.

“We have to have these discussions without allowing any perpetrators to hide behind alcohol” –Lindsey Mosvick 

Officials said most instances of dating violence resort back to irresponsible alcohol consumption. Curry estimates that nine out of ten times, alcohol is involved in instances of dating violence.

On account of what is being reported in Oxford, Maj. Sheridan Maiden echoes this correlation of dating violence and alcohol. “A large proportion of dating violence occurs when one or both parties are under the influence,” Maiden said.

Research conducted by psychologists supports these claims. College-age men under the influence of alcohol are more likely to perpetrate psychological, physical, and sexual violence then men under the influence of marijuana, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Mosvick said this correlation, though it may exist, does not necessarily show causation and causes some problems in her line of work as a Violence Prevention Coordinator on a college campus.

Mosvick said sexual violence perpetrators often use alcohol to excuse their actions, blaming what they did on their inebriation. Also, survivors of sexual violence are more likely to excuse their perpetrator’s behavior when that person is under the influence of alcohol by saying the offender would not regularly treat them that way, Mosvick said. Mosvick makes the point that instances of sexual violence have more to do with the person and far less to do with anything an offender may put into their body.

“Many students on our campus drink large amounts and never abuse or assault their partners,” Mosvick said. “A person who commits this type of violence does not do so simply because they or their victim is under the influence of alcohol.”

While there is a correlation between sex offenses, dating violence and alcohol, Mosvick makes it clear that alcohol does not cause or commit sexual violence; people do.

“We have to have these discussions without allowing any perpetrators to hide behind alcohol,” Mosvick said.