Kent City Police were short on manpower over the weekend because of a high number of arrests, many for underage drinking, Chief James Peach said.

“The weekend was very demanding,” he said. “Our resources were stretched to the maximum. It put the community at risk because we couldn’t perform our police responsibilities to the rest of the community.”

Out of all the arrests made, 48 Kent State students were charged with underage drinking.

According to Peach, police made an average of 46 call responses, 22 physical arrests and four citations each night from Thursday to Saturday.

“That’s just from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. each night,” Peach said. “It doesn’t take into account activity that happened prior to 11 each night.”

Underage drinking arrests were made all around the city, but streets with high volumes of arrests included College Avenue, Lincoln Street and University Drive. Arrests were highest in neighborhoods near University Townhomes on Summit Street.

“We could not keep up with the number of calls,” Peach said. “We had to put cops on overtime in order to effectively respond to community problems and complaints.”

The department had about a dozen officers on staff each night last weekend, and many officers were working 12 to 14 hour shifts.

“Our resources were stretched to the point where officers were working far more than what I’m comfortable with,” Peach said.

Ideally, Peach said, the department could have used at least four or five more cops over the weekend.

University ombudsman Greg Jarvie said the time of year could explain why an increasing number of students were getting arrested.

“They are probably new students that are trying to acclimate themselves to their community,” Jarvie said. “We’ve been having a lot of good weather lately, which means more people are out partying and drinking.”

He said the solution to bringing down the arrests is common sense.

“Underage drinking is still an offense of the law,” Jarvie said. “Students need to understand the consequences. Those that choose to drink underage need to understand they can be cited or arrested.”

Jarvie said he intends to talk to city officials about the matter in the near future.

“It’s probably beneficial for both the city and the university to have some conversation about these perceived issues relating to student behavior,” Jarvie said.

Contact public affairs reporter Aman Ali at [email protected].