Majority of game-day arrests made up of 18- to 22-year-olds

While students account for 16 percent of the crowd at MU’s home football games, 92 percent of those arrested at home games in the past two seasons have been between the ages of 18 and 22.

Of the 166 charges filed against fans at Memorial Stadium since the start of the 2005 season, 145 involved people in that age group, according to MU police records. More than half of the charges — 96 — were for minors in possession of alcohol.

Many of those arrests likely occur before the game even starts, said MU Police Department Capt. Brian Weimer. Everyone who enters the stadium on game day is searched for contraband, including alcohol. If someone over 21 is caught with alcohol, they are kicked out of the stadium, Weimer said. MU police arrest and charge anyone under 21 who is caught trying to sneak alcohol into the game.

While minor-in-possession charges account for a significant chunk of the total arrests, college-aged people also represent the majority of those arrested for other reasons — trespassing, drug possession and littering, for example.

If minor-in-possession charges were removed from the equation, 70 percent of the charges filed were against people between 18 and 22.

Alcohol charges account for the majority of arrests at all home football games, with one exception. Thirty-four people were arrested when Missouri beat Nebraska in October 2005 — 22 of them were charged with trespassing because they were among the thousands of people who swarmed onto Faurot Field after the final gun to tear down the goalposts; only three of the trespassing arrests involved people over the age of 22.

MU sophomore Kurt Krieger was 18 years old at the time of his arrest for rushing the field after the Nebraska game.

“If there was an adult, and a girl, and then a guy student, the guy student would be the first arrested,” said Krieger, whose mother gave him a newspaper photo of his arrest, which now hangs on his living room wall. “And I don’t know why.”

Krieger said that, at the time, he was pretty unhappy about his arrest but now admits that he knew before he went onto the field that police were trying to curtail trespassing. Krieger thinks the arrest of so many students after the Nebraska game has quelled student enthusiasm for rushing the field after MU victories.

Indeed, only one person has been arrested for trespassing since the Nebraska game – another 18-year-old, who was arrested at the MU-Murray State game in September.

Law enforcement at MU football games is coordinated between several different agencies, Weimer said. About 20 Boone County Sheriff’s deputies, 60 Missouri State Highway Patrol officers and 30 MU police officers patrol inside and around Memorial Stadium during home games. Weimer says that the high number of arrests of 18- to 22-year-olds doesn’t mean officers are targeting student behavior.

“We enforce all the rules,” he said. “Ansd we enforce them equally to all individuals, to all groups. There would be no logical reason to pick out a student over anyone else.”

Matt Johnson, a 23-year-old MU senior, isn’t so sure. Johnson was removed from the Oct. 21 game against Kansas State after being inside Memorial Stadium for “about two minutes,” he said.

Although he admits he was intoxicated, Johnson said he wasn’t bothering anyone or acting obnoxious.

He had arrived late to the game and was making his way to his seat when he paused in the concourse to watch a goal-line stand by Missouri’s defense.

Johnson said the Missouri highway patrol officer who removed him said he was blocking peoples’ view of the game. Johnson, who wasn’t charged, thinks it was because he identified himself as a student.

“They can get away with stuff they maybe shouldn’t be doing when it’s a kid,” Johnson said.

Lt. John Hotz of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that while he’s not familiar with Johnson’s situation, he does not attribute Johnson’s arrest to his age or his status as a student.

“Either he was drunk, he had alcohol when he wasn’t supposed to, or he was causing trouble for others and had to be removed,” Hotz said.