MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — During the first week of WVU students returning to Morgantown, local police response increased substantially.
Police responded to more than 2,000 calls for service and simultaneously issued 310 criminal citations. They responded to an average of 226 calls per day during the span of August 11 through August 20.
“You had a lot of folks that were novice drinkers that probably shouldn’t have been drinking and ended up in the hospital,” Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston said Tuesday morning on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “We were finding people passed out. We were getting people medical attention. You had a number of alcohol overdoses. EMS was as busy as we were.”
Law enforcement also cited several businesses for selling alcohol under age.
“We had some pretty irresponsible alcohol vending locations,” Preston said. “We had seven private clubs that were selling to underage. We had four off-premises locations that sold to underage. And we were very diligent in dealing with those kind of things.”
Those businesses were:
- Boston Beanery, High Street, Morgantown.
- Whisper Nightclub, High Street, Morgantown.
- Sabraton BFS, Earl Core Road, Morgantown
- Dollar General, High Street, Morgantown.
- Nick’s Canteen, North High Street, Morgantown.
- Bent Willey’s, (2 Violations), Chestnut Street, Morgantown.
- Starport Arcade, Chestnut Street, Morgantown.
- The Annex, (2 Violations), High Street, Morgantown.
- Liquid Lounge, Walnut Street, Morgantown.
- Vice Versa, (2 Violations), Wall Street, Morgantown.
At least 29 people have been arrested since WVU move-in weekend began August 11. Chief Preston believes that number may be closer to 35 and is still rising.
The Morgantown Police Department wasn’t only dealing with the criminal side of things, Preston said. They’ve been watching a slow, steady trickle of increased traffic accidents all month–especially during the construction of the Easton Hill intersection.
“That created some things coming in because some folks don’t wait until move-in day to come in,” he said. “Especially the juniors and seniors, they come back to town early. So, they straggle in. We had a lot of traffic issues going with that.”
Preston said there were also a number of complaints about “vulgar” signs being hung outside of off-campus houses occupied by students.
“Some were just colorful Mountaineers and things like that,” he said. “And it just kind of progressed, or regressed I should say. It was definitely something to live down to, not live up to.”
On top of that, Preston said Morgantown is already a fairly bustling city when students aren’t around. He said requests for special event permits have nearly quadrupled since 2011.
“The operations have really ramped up over the last five or six years in the city because of all the different things that go on,” Preston said.
Read the first round of numbers and a list of 29 arrests here.