When months passed between Marshall Street bar raids under Operation Prevent, Syracuse Police Department’s Lt. Shannon Trice was quick to assert police action was on its way.

Not any more.

‘We’re considering reviving it,’ said Trice, of Operation Prevent on Monday.

A far contrast from, ‘You will probably see some activity in the next few weeks,’ or ‘This semester, you’ll definitely be seeing something,’ which are statements Trice made to The Daily Orange two years ago during raid lulls.

It has been one year since the last bar raid under the program Operation Prevent. New York state no longer funds the program, once sponsored by the New York State Liquor Authority and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. Operation Prevent financially supported nine bar raids – in which more than 250 fake IDs were confiscated – to curtail underage drinking in the university area during a three-year period beginning Feb. 8, 2003.

‘There’s nothing to complain about,’ Trice said. ‘We can only do so much. It’s up to the state. They set the parameters of what they want enforced. They decide what they want funded.’

Without the original $18,500 grant from the state, Trice said his under-funded and inadequately staffed traffic program has ‘shifted priorities’ and is conducting fewer raids on its own, even as statistics from Syracuse University show a 55 percent increase in underage drinking and extreme intoxication cases in the past two years.

‘I did receive info from SU how underage drinking has increased,’ Trice said. ‘There have been tremendous amounts of alcohol poisonings in underage students.’

The last bar raid conducted under Operation Prevent occurred on Feb. 23, 2006, when Faegan’s Caf and Pub on South Crouse Avenue was tagged, and three fake IDs were confiscated. Two weeks earlier, Syracuse police ticketed 25 students for underage drinking or possession of a fake ID at Lucy’s Retired Surfer’s Bar.

Sara Hershcopf, then a freshman, entered Lucy’s when the police stormed the building that night. She saw girls handcuffed by the police and people crying. Hershcopf was not ticketed, but she and others saw the lasting impressions of the raids.

‘I think the (current) sophomores and juniors who got stuck there were pretty aware afterwards,’ she said. ‘There were still rumors and people were pretty on edge.’

But the raid on Lucy’s was the last.

Operation Prevent was originally funded during the 2003-04 budget year by an $18,500 grant from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, a division of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. The program was renewed the next year with an additional $4,000.

The first raid under Operation Prevent occurred on Feb. 8, 2003, at Konrad’s, a former Marshall Street bar, which eventually closed after numerous raids.

Bill Crowley, director of communications for the New York State Liquor Authority, would only briefly comment on the conclusion of Operation Prevent, stating, ‘the grant was not renewed,’ and the decision was ‘part of the budget making.’

‘We’re going to do our job,’ he said, ‘but it’s always nice to get funds and grants.’

SU officials declined comment through Matthew Snyder, director of communications and media relations for the Division of Student Affairs.

‘No one at SU ever lobbied for Operation Prevent’s creation or continuation,’ said Snyder, in an e-mail. The university’s only involvement was providing Public Safety officers at raids and taking punishment referrals from the police to Judicial Affairs, Snyder said.

While Trice specifically mentioned working with Laura Madelone, director of the Office of Off-Campus Student Services, Madelone would not comment, saying her office no longer had an affiliation with Operation Prevent and lacked sufficient knowledge of the situation.

After numerous attempts, officials from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and New York State Division of the Budget were not able to provide financial figures and other information to explain why the grant was not renewed.

Because it’s been more than a full calendar year since the last raid, Hershcopf – who often goes to the bars, still underage – said she thinks students, specifically freshmen, go to the bars without fear.

‘I think the freshmen might not know any better,’ said Hershcopf, a psychology major. ‘The people who were in it last year might be watching out for it more. But freshmen will be ignorant to it.’

The conclusion of Operation Prevent comes at a trying time for university officials.

The Office of Judicial Affairs has experienced a significant increase in reported alcohol-related cases – specifically those involving extreme intoxication – in the past two years. An ‘extreme intoxication’ case is classified when an ambulance is called to transport the person who is suspected of being intoxicated and is most often made in cases where the subject has thrown up or is unconscious.

During the 2005-06 academic year, 1,284 alcohol incidents – the unlawful use or possession of alcohol – and 88 cases of extreme intoxication were reported to Judicial Affairs, compared to 830 and 58, respectively, in 2003-04.

Only two bar raids were conducted during the 2005-06 school year as opposed to five raids from April 2003 to April 2004.

While Operation Prevent is certainly not to blame for the increase in underage drinking on campus, the program was a major deterrent at the bar scene, said Associate Director of Judicial Affairs Cheryl Stanley. Currently, Judicial Affairs is investigating the sharp rise in alcohol abuse at SU, she said.

‘We’re in the process of exploring that with a couple of different research projects,’ she said. ‘We have more students on campus, a lot better enforcement and perhaps a change of more alcohol use on campus.’

Still, the case to enrollment figures do not lie – there may be more students, but there are even more infractions.

As the full-time undergraduate enrollment increased by 673 students from 2003-04 to 2005-06, cases involving alcohol were more prevalent. Last year, Judicial Affairs dealt with one alcohol case for every nine undergraduate students compared to one for every 13 students in 2003-04.

Judicial Affairs has yet to release data for the fall 2006 semester, but Stanley indicated when the first semester statistics are released, they will show an increase in extreme intoxication cases this year. Meanwhile, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment confirmed an undergraduate enrollment figure of 12,144 for the 2006-07 academic year – up only 16 undergrads from last year.

Trice predicted, even during Operation Prevent, underage drinking flourished all across campus – not just at the bars – and the lack of a constant bar raid program isn’t to blame for the drastic increase in underage drinking at SU.

‘I think they probably went in the dorms,’ said Trice, a Syracuse police lieutenant. ‘It stayed in the dorms. It stayed in the parties off campus. I know they’ve cracked down on the Greek system, but the neighborhood patrol initiative is more complaint driven. If they don’t complain, there’s nothing to address.’

Even if drinking is prevalent everywhere on campus, going to the bars underage during Operation Prevent was a calculated risk, said Emilie Shapiro, a sophomore in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, who was also at Lucy’s when it was raided last February.

But Shapiro said the current lack of law enforcement doesn’t have her worried about going to the bars underage anymore.

‘I don’t think twice about it,’ she said. ‘People used to tell us that bars were going to be raided and most people knew when. If I knew it would be raided, I wouldn’t go.’

Jerry Dellas, co-owner of Faegan’s and president of the Crouse-Marshall Business Association, said he believes Operation Prevent was important for curbing underage drinking, but that bars on Marshall Street were unfairly targeted, especially with more students heading downtown for nightlife.

‘If the university is allowed to assist in trying to stop bars, they should be doing that downtown, too,’ he said.

Two Marshall Street area bars closed as a result of Operation Prevent raids: Konrad’s and Planet 505. Both were raided a combined five times out of the nine funded raids.

Hershcopf and Shapiro both agreed that while Operation Prevent was successful, any effect it had on the undergraduate population at Syracuse is gone because there is no more constant threat.

‘People will always go back to the bars if it doesn’t scare them,’ Hershcopf said.

Trice’s concern is a clear indicator of the current status of the university-area bar raids.

‘The state didn’t give anybody any alcohol enforcement money,’ he said. ‘When they did, they went away from underage drinking enforcement.’

Despite the lack of funds from the state, Trice said Syracuse police could continue to conduct raids, but it is also a matter of manpower. He said the department could change assignments and resources, but has yet to consider this reassignment.

‘Basically, we took on other responsibilities within the police department,’ Trice said. ‘We are doing more with Operation Impact, which focuses alcohol efforts on store stings, where we send underage operatives into stores to purchase alcohol and arrest the store owners.’

Trice admitted the effect of Operation Prevent, once greatly felt throughout the university area, is now negligible.

‘By now,’ he said, ‘the students affected have gone and graduated. I know people have heard about it, but they haven’t felt the sting.’

Published on March 26, 2007 at 12:00 pm