U of M Police Increase Patrol this Halloween

The University of Minnesota’s never had the Halloween reputation that comes with a certain school in Wisconsin. In fact, the University has usually been more concerned about Minnesota students traveling to Eau Claire for parties instead of needing to worry about problems back in Minneapolis. But this year, there’s a new ingredient: outdoor football.

The Gophers are scheduled to play in TCF Bank Stadium at 7 p.m. on Saturday night, which also happens to be Halloween. So, there’s the potential of thousands of students piling out of an on campus stadium late in the evening on a night known for rowdiness.

The University doesn’t want to call a whole lot of attention to it, not wanting to create any expectation of trouble, but they are well aware the ingredients for trouble are there. And to that end, will be sending out a mass e-mail to students this week to remind them to behave.

“We send messages to our students frequently and we’ve done that a lot this semester,” said Amelious Whyte in the Office of Student Affairs. The email this week will focus of Saturday, “mostly encouraging them to be responsible, making sure they make good choices, letting them know our student conduct code applies off campus as well as on campus.”

In terms of any police preparation, not much will be different from any other home football game. The U of M Police will have all officers working, which is standard. And they’ll pay the overtime for 12 officers from Minneapolis Police to help patrol the area, which is also standard game day procedure so far this first year back on campus.

The weather may be help keep things calm. By game time Saturday night, the forecast is for rain and snow, with wind chills below freezing.

That may encourage crowds from lingering outside after the game. As for during the game, we don’t have that Teflon dome anymore. “Yeah,” said Whyte, “I’m going to dress warmly!”