St. Patrick's Day does not increase police calls

The Boone County Sheriff's Department increased patrols last weekend.

By Amanda Wysocki

Published March 16, 2009

The Boone County Sheriff's Department was one of many departments across the state participating in an effort to apprehend more intoxicated and impaired drivers during St. Patrick's Day weekend.

The Missouri Department of Transportation designates several weekends throughout the year to increase patrol presence, BCSD Deputy Brian Leer said.

Boone County received grant money to fund four extra officers whose sole job was to apprehend intoxicated drivers, Leer said. He said the grant money was used during the holiday weekend.

"When we bring in extra people, normally anyone that works a particular night on a saturation will arrest at least one intoxicated driver," Leer said.

BCSD officers apprehended six people for driving while intoxicated during St. Patrick's Day weekend, Leer said.

St. Patrick's Day weekend did see a slight increase in the number of people apprehended on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

In 2007 and 2008, there were three arrests each year for driving while intoxicated. St. Patrick's Day was on a Monday last year and one of the arrests was on the actual holiday.

Since there were extra patrols out last weekend, the number of people apprehended might not be an accurate representation of the amount of drivers typically driving while intoxicated on the weekends, Leer said.

"It varies drastically," Leer said. "It depends on the other workload. If they don't have time to go out patrolling because of an increase in the number of calls, they don't."

Leer said officers have more time to patrol and be proactive during slower times.

This St. Patrick's Day weekend was not that different from any other weekend on campus, MU Police Department Capt. Scott Richardson said.

"We did have more people on campus just because of the state basketball game," Richardson said. "So, we had more people assigned to special events."

Richardson said St. Patrick's Day weekend is typically not a time for a spike in incidents for MUPD.