BY NICHOLE ODEN
TIGER TV ONLINE REPORTER
Students are anxiously awaiting Saturday for the first home football game of the season. Students aren’t the only ones preparing for the game though. The University’s police department has to be prepared to deal with all the student offenses made on game day.
Chief of Police, Lawrence Rabalais said they take crime on campus very seriously, especially on game days.
“We just want to ensure the safety of the students and other fans,” Rabalais said.
Rabailais said on average LSU police make around five to eight arrests per game.
Many of the offenses made on game day happen during tailgating.
According to the University’s sports website there are around 120,000 fans on campus on game days to tailgate. The stadium only holds 92,400 people which means almost 30,000 extra people show up just to tailgate.
With that many people on campus there has to be certain guidelines followed to ensure the enjoyment and safety of everyone.
Music is one area there are certain restrictions. There can be no live bands playing and a tailgate must keep the volume of its music confined to their personal tailgate with the speakers facing towards their tent.
There are also concerns regarding the tents. Tents should not be larger then 10 X 10 feet, should not block sidewalks and should be taken down before the start of the game.
When these sorts of rules are broken, Rabailias said they try to handle the issue in a calm and polite manner and just ask people to fix whatever rule they are breaking.
The most common offense made during tailgating is alcohol related, specifically underage drinking.
“It bothers me when people get really trashed before the games,” said Samantha Sule, chemical engineering freshman.
Rabailais said around 8-10 MIPs (minor in possession) are given out per game.
“There’s always underage drinking,” said Jocob Kindscer, history senior. “I’ve gotten an MIP before. It was during my freshman year.”
Once game time rolls around, students anxiously crowd into Tiger Stadium. But just like tailgating there are rules to abide by.
All students are subject to be searched and can’t bring into the game any food or beverage, weapons, drugs or noisemakers of any kind. Alcohol and smoking are both prohibited during the games.
Rabailais said there is a problem with people trying to either sneak alcohol into the game or enter the game extremely intoxicated.
“We try to catch all these people before they enter the game so there aren’t any problems during the game,” Rabailais said.
Rabailais said there aren’t too many problems during the games. Students just need to remember to be considerate of others, handle themselves in a mature manner and of course to enjoy the game.
