Berkeley police to crack down on student drinking

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 28, 2008 | by Doug Oakley

Berkeley police announced the annual crackdown on underage drinking around UC Berkeley this week, courtesy of an $89,000 grant from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

UC Berkeley Police reported a young woman was hospitalized Monday night after being hit in the head by a brick while attending a fraternity party on Piedmont Avenue where alcohol was being served.

The woman received stitches for a head laceration, and she chipped a tooth, Berkeley police spokeswoman Mary Kusmiss said. She was knocked down during an altercation in which one of two uninvited guests threw the brick at a group of people standing on the porch of the Phi Gamma Delta house, Kusmiss said. Police searched the area for the two men but made no arrests.

"At the beginning of the school year, we tend to see a lot of alcohol abuse and it has a significant impact on emergency services," Kusmiss said.

"You have young people who fall down or get into fights, and people get alcohol poisoning."

Berkeley Police said they will kick off their enforcement program today Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. by checking identification at the doors of bars and by using underage decoys to ask adults to buy them alcohol at local stores.

And in a departure from past years, UC Berkeley Police probably won't be joining Berkeley Police because it did not send in paperwork required to get a grant that pays for the enforcement, UC Police Chief Mitch Celaya said in May.

"Thus far, we have not heard whether they are going to allocate any officers on any of the programs or do any operations of their own," said Kusmiss. "It's disappointing because a large majority of the enforcement involves the college age community."

Celaya did not return phone calls seeking comment on how or if his department would conduct any similar operations this year without the grant.

Kusmiss said this weekend the department will have 12 officers working the alcohol beat around the school because there is usually more drinking the first week of school. In later months, the numbers will be reduced to six officers on weekends.

Kusmiss said this year is the sixth year in a row the Berkeley Police have received the state grant to do alcohol enforcement.

Last year, the department made 22 arrests and issued 425 citations, Kusmiss said. Its program has been so successful that it is now training officers from other departments, she said. This weekend, Berkeley will host officers from South San Francisco, Petaluma, Healdsburg and Rohnert Park.

Reach Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com.