Dartblog

Chief Giaccone’s presentation began with the observation that alcohol abuse by Dartmouth students seemed have increased in the past months and therefore the Town Police was going to ramp up its enforcement efforts to a new level. The Chief cited past fatalities in Hanover as a result of alcohol abuse, dangerous behavior due to inebriation (“roof surfing”) and sexual assaults in which alcohol was involved.

The Chief referred repeatedly to the “numbers” and stated that as a result of the figures (no details given) the following actions would be taken:

a) There would be increased compliance checks by uniformed officers to ensure that students and their social organizations were not in violation of the laws against underage drinking, the serving of alcohol to minors and the use of premises for these activities;

b) The police would be conducting alcohol stings in which underage persons employed by the police department would visit sites on the Dartmouth campus under cover in an attempt to be served alcohol (the Chief said that these people would not use fake ID’s) and report this conduct to the police for use in prosecution;

c) In addition to basic charges for underage consumption, higher charges might leveled against servers of alcohol, officers of organizations at whose venues alcohol was served, and the organizations themselves. The statute punishing the “facilitating of an underage drinking party” — a misdemeanor — would be employed against Dartmouth students; the Chief said that this statute provided for the possibility of jail time and fines of as much as $100,000/count against offending organizations.

d) Crimes that were only violations, like underage possession of alcohol, could lead to fines of as much as $20,000/count.

I asked the College’s counsel, Bob Donin, who was in attendance, if the College was aware of the H.Po’s new campaign, and he said that the College was not aware of this development.