Police report an increase in crime in the early evening on St. Patrick's Day
For police patrolling Central Michigan University and the rest of Mount Pleasant, St. Patrick’s Day is an entirely different kind of celebration than St. Patrick's Night.
Mount Pleasant Police Department Public Information Officer Jeff Browne said the need for police presence escalated after 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“I thought it was going to be a relatively calm St. Patrick’s Day based on the afternoon,” Browne said. “After about 5 p.m., our calls for service really picked up.”
Between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m. MPPD responded to 165 calls for service, well above the average 130 calls for service during those hours on St. Patrick’s Day. Arrests and citations were down however, with police completing only 29 citations and arrests as a result of those 165 calls, as compared to the usual 40 some arrests made between those hours.
During St. Patrick’s Day, MPPD issued 4 traffic citations, 10 charges of obstructing justice, 2 citations for trespassing, made 1 arrest for aggravated assault and issued 20 separate citations for alcohol violations. One of these citations was issued to a 24-year-old Snover man who walked directly in front of a vehicle at the 1000 Block of South Mission Street with open intoxicants in hand.
Police also arrested a 21-year-old Caledonia man who tried to light a couch fire. The man, who police said is a CMU student, fled police on foot until he was caught and arrested on charges of arson and resisting and obstructing.
“For whatever reason, things really picked up even before dark,” Browne said. "I thought our educational and preventative measures were having an effect, but maybe not as much."
Lt. Cameron Wassman of CMUPD said the campus was as calm as previous St. Patrick's Days.
"This year was fairly typical," Wassman said. "A lot of it is weather driven."
Wassman said that a few years back when St. Patrick's Day fell on a 75 degree Saturday, it was like "all hell broke loose". Tuesday's high temperature was 45 degrees.
"When it's colder out, people don't get so out of hand," Wassman said.
Clarkston Freshman Jonathan Millis said he and his friends thought the day was wild.
"It was way crazier than we expected," Millis said. "It definitely set the bar for next year."
Alternatively, South Haven senior Claire Trapp said the day was pretty mild.
"There's two main times I've noticed people getting out of hand," Trapp said. "The first is St. Patrick's Day, and the second is Halloween. That's when a lot of kids who don't usually drink feel like they have to go out and get drunk at 8 a.m. They don't know their tolerance as well, so those days can get out of hand, but I thought this year was quiet compared to my last few."
