University of Nebraska home football games are pretty overwhelming events in Lincoln. When a stadium fills with 85,000 fans downtown--with a huge but unknown number of other fans clogging parking lots and bars during the game--you better believe that the City is hopping for the police. So, how do you think a night game versus a mid-day game would compare, in terms of the police workload?
Not so fast. Nebraska's home opener against Western Kentucky on September 4 was at 6:00 PM. We dispatched 482 events that day. Last weekend's game against Idaho was at 11:30 AM. We dispatched 517 events on that day. The reason may revolve around the kickoff effect: during the evening and nighttime hours when police work starts to peak, people are either in the stadium or stationary somewhere watching the game. The game-time lull on Saturday night is more significant than the game-time lull in the middle of the day, which is pretty mild on any normal Saturday anyway.
Another possibility is that the hard-partying crowd is worn out to some extent by the end of a night game, whereas with an early game there is plenty of time to rally for round two before the bell tolls. If this post looks vaguely familiar to you, I looked at the same phenomenon last year in a post titled Night and Day. The key difference in the opposite result in 2009 was a night game win compared to a day game loss. I'm guessing that the downtown bars have a strong financial interest in a Husker victory,
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
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11 comments:
I'm friends with some bar owners downtown & they have said that Husker wins mean happy people wanting to part with their cash. During the final years of the Callahan era & the dash to mediocrity, my buddies bar receipts took a financial hit. If only some of that cash could find it's way to the police to fund the budget!
Some years ago the cash did find the way to LPD...VIA a break in at a tavern by a bad apple.
It's too bad so many people are mean or obnoxious drunks rather than happy drunks. The accidents might be just as plentiful, but the assaults would decline. I think it's true though, that alcohol doesn't really change your personality, it just amplifies it. It's too bad we're not a happier bunch of people.
The difference in CFS is only 35 calls. I would be more interested in a parsing of the TYPES of CFS...more assaults? More alcohol-fueled? More parking violation-related? Ages of those given citations, etc. It looks like a big number because of the tipple over 500 and I'm not disagreeing that there is an effect. How many CFS occur on a non-home game Saturday? That would be an interesting comparator, I think. Also, separate the CFS out by location. I'm assuming there is a spike in CFS in the DT and stadium neighborhoods, but the CFS in the outlying suburbs remain static.
10:52-
I don't think the difference is enough to fret about, I just think the conventional wisdom is that a night game is more of a zoo than a day game, when the load in terms of numbers looks pretty similar.
Interestingly, these two days (September 11 and September 4) rank one and two this year as the busiest days for LPD--followed by July 5 in third place.
During 2010, the average CFS on Saturdays, excluding Sept. 4 and 11, has been 344.
Here's some of the individual call types you asked for, Sept. 4 is the first number, Sept. 11 the second:
Assault: 12, 28
Disturbance: 118, 122
Alcohol: 57, 35
Parking: 42, 42
It would be nice if there was an easy way (for we civilians) to combine LPD and UNLPD incident stats for game days in the downtown and campus areas.
Chief,
Do your numbers include the same post-game time period (# of hrs) or are they strictly 000-2359 for both days? If the latter how does the 5th compare to the 12th?
Night pirate. Day pirate.
Chief Casady, I found your blog as I was searching for information on Lincoln since I'm considering relocating there.
Your blog has clinched it, I'm moving to Nebraska. Hope Lincoln realizes how lucky they are.
I don't know what to do either about the rudeness of kids these days and I hope you crack down on em -- they're not grown up enough to realize they're ruining it for everybody.
12:44-
The day starts at 0000 and ends at 2359 hours. Have at it!
4:09-
Wow! That's very kind of you, and I'm glad to contribute to Lincoln's economic development. Try the ESB at Lazlo's, the SOB at Misty, and a Runza. Don't ask what is in it, and do not defile your Runza with any mushrooms, cheese, or I-talian.
Chief, the #1 Cheese Runza is delicious! and so is the Swiss Mushroom Runza.
Just sayin...
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