Editor’s note: This is the second part in a four-part series on binge drinking.

Each night Green Street shakes. Loud music vibrates through bar walls, accompanying the clicking of high heels against pavement and the screams of young adults, completing a melody that acts as a routine soundtrack to most students’ college nights.

Deeper into the melody, wailing sirens and flashing lights blur past throngs of dressed-up students waiting to get into the bars; most are part of the 77 percent of UIUC students who drink.

Over half of that 77 percent are under 21 years of age. The fact that underage drinking is illegal does not keep most underclassmen from breaking the law each weekend, leaving night-shift police very busy.

Policemen are a huge presence on the UIUC campus. They directly interact with 13.7 percent of the student body as reported by students in the Alcohol and Other Drug Survey.

The University Police Department and the Champaign Police Department are constantly addressing binge drinking through bar raids, tickets and warnings.

“My job is to help students survive college,” said Champaign Sgt. Scott Friedlein, head of the alcohol enforcement team.

Fighting the pervasive binge drinking culture at the University is complicated for police by the unique environment that a campus town has.

“Policing a university is different than any other-there are always students around at night,” University Patrol Officer Tony Micele said. “No matter where you turn your head, you will always see someone breaking the law.”

Policing a campus town is also unique because of its high turnover rate. “Every year we get 1,000 new students on campus that I have to re-train so they also know the community standards,” Friedlein said.

The vast majority of these new students-as well as the old-go to Champaign for socializing. The 13 Champaign bars and their surrounding areas are patrolled by two different law departments. Champaign’s department sends 40 to 50 police officers out each weekend night; the University’s police force sends about 20 officers out.

In 1995, both police departments began raiding bars. Undercover or uniformed policemen walk through bars on the lookout for underage drinkers and bar violations.

In the past three years, the Champaign police have issued 101 violations to the bars. First and second violations result in monetary fines, third through sixth warnings cause suspensions and a seventh violation will permanently close a bar.

“In a two-week period we have issued five violations,” Friedlein said. “That may be one reason why the bar owners nicknamed me the Liquor Nazi.”

This summer will be the first time Champaign police issue violations for minors caught drinking on bar premises.

“The big-level bar raids we do now have really cleaned up the bar scene,” Micele said. “There used to be a lot of bar fights, but that has died down. It probably curbs underage drinking, too.”

In 2004, Champaign police issued 1,375 tickets citing a minor in possession of alcohol. They also issued 400 other tickets last year for other charges involving alcohol use, according to Friedlein.

At $280 each, these tickets generate thousands of dollars in revenue each year. In 2004, students paid $376,000 in tickets to the city of Champaign.

“We figure we should hit them in the pocket book, rather than take them to jail,” Micele said.friedleineting is just a money-making scheme,” Friedlein said. “But, if it was, wouldn’t you think I would be wreaking havoc at the bars every night? Drinking tickets are for the function of checks and balances-not money.”

Adam Buchler, sophomore in Business, has received three underage drinking tickets in his first two years of college-each a result of bar raids. If he receives one more drinking violation he will be suspended from school.

“The tickets never scared me away from drinking,” Buchler said. “It’s only money and it’s not like it’s embarrassing because everyone gets them.”

While bar raids are needed to maintain a level of safety, bars are one of the safest locations for drinking throughout campus, Friedlein said. Alcohol distribution is regulated and groups are contained within local areas.

“Everything is visible, everything is safe [in the bars],” Friedlein said. Police face more serious safety issues outside the bars when they patrol apartment parties, house parties and the streets in general.

Each night, policemen circle the campus area on routine patrol. The police scan Green Street and surrounding areas for students who stand out, Micele said.

“We look for emotional students-angry, sick or crying, and anyone that draws attention to him or herself.”

Outside the bars, the University Police Department’s primary goal is safety and student welfare, said Officer Tony Ortiz, the University Police Department’s crime prevention coordinator.

While Champaign police ticket any law-breaking students they come in contact with, University police often let students off with verbal warnings.

“We try to help students more than anything else,” Ortiz said. “We are more concerned with their physical and emotional condition.”

“University police are known as the kinder, gentler police on campus,” Friedlein said. “They are more about security than enforcement.”

University police may also resist issuing tickets and opt for warnings because of the Cleary Act of 1990 which requires all universities to turn over their crime rates and violations for public viewing, Friedlein said. “Too many tickets on university record will hurt recruiting new students.”

Regardless of whether police are issuing tickets or warnings, both police departments emphasize having good relationships with the student body.

“We try to be as cordial as possible when dealing with student offenders on the street,” Micele said. “I like to act as a friend or even like a father figure.”

Buchler, the student who has acquired three drinking tickets in the last two years, studied his hands and knit his brow as he recounted the three incidents. “It took me a while to realize it was myself getting me into trouble-not the cops,” Buchler said.