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Last updated on Monday, April 23, 2012
(BLOOMINGTON) - According to a release from the excise police they issued a record number of tickets during Little 500 weekend in Bloomington this year.
They issued 271 tickets this year, more than any previous year.
It has been called the "Greatest College Weekend," or officially the Indiana University Student Foundation Little 500. And for the first time in the history of the Little 500, Delta Tau Delta fraternity won edged out the Cutters team, ending their five-year reign over the race.
Also for the first time, Indiana Excise Police have poured almost every available officer into the Bloomington area. As a Bloomington native, Indiana State Excise Police Officer Travis Thickstun has been around the Little 500 most of this life, he knows what this weekend is all about. It is a big party.
Officer Thickstun and other officers are expected to write more than 200 tickets this weekend. Eyewitness News talked with a visiting Ball State student, that was ticketed, she said, ten minutes after getting to Bloomington. She admitted there was beer in a car that was being driven by someone under 21.
One reason Officer Thickstun says that Excise Police are cracking down so hard this year, "is all of the people who are highly intoxicated and by themselves at night, especially females"
The one-year anniversary of IU student Lauren Spierer's disappearance is approaching and police say there are still too many people out after dark, alone and often times intoxicated. Earlier in the week, Officer Thickstun says one of his fellow officers found a young woman crying and alone in a parking lot.
"Wednesday night out at Memorial Stadium, in the parking lot late at night and by herself drunk, crying loudly and, you know, no one else around," Thickstun said.
The other reason for the crackdown is underage drinking. Excise officers found a young man is underage and under the influence, a field breathalyzer test had him at three times the legal limit to drive. For the host of the party, that meant the better part a keg of beer was poured down the drain and a ticket for providing alcohol to a minor
All of those ticketed made a court appearance Sunday morning, paid the $425 fine and will complete community service and alcohol education classes. Failure to do so will result in a warrant for their arrest.
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