UNH, Durham see 5-year high in first-week arrests

DURHAM — While returning University of New Hampshire students and new freshmen enjoyed their final week before classes, the Durham and University of New Hampshire police departments were busy with the highest number of arrests since 2010. 

From Monday, Aug. 24, to Sunday, Aug, 30, 46 arrests were made in Durham. The Durham Police Department arrested 32, UNH police arrested eight and state police arrested six. Durham police's arrests nearly doubled from last year. This is the highest number of arrests the town has seen during the first week students were back on campus since 2009, which saw 92 arrests. Students began moving into off-campus apartments Aug. 24, and 90 percent of those arrested by Durham and UNH police were during UNH's move-in weekend, which began Aug. 28.

A total of 74 percent of those arrested were UNH students. Kurz attributed some of the increase to freshmen's first weekend night on campus. “There were people walking around, but that is so typical of 3,500 incoming freshman (saying) ‘Oh, this is college life, what should we be doing and where should we be doing it?’,” said Durham Police Chief David Kurz. “No one likes being arrested and there were a number of freshmen who were. They were dreading telling their parents about it.”

“Traditionally, on-campus arrests are lower because the on-campus population moves in over a three-day period,” UNH Police Chief Paul Dean added. “Clearly, off-campus arrests (by Durham police) have nearly doubled since the 2014 UNH move-in weekend. However, since this year’s arrest data is an anomaly to the previous 10 years, I don’t want to speculate as to the root cause.”

Kurz said about 67 percent of the arrests were alcohol-related and 70 percent of those arrested were under age 21. Despite this, Kurz said, “Everyone was very polite even with various levels of intoxication.”

While alcohol arrests are expected during move-in weekend, 14 percent of arrests made were drug-related. Kurz said four drug-related arrests by Durham police involved cocaine, which is unusual.

“We anticipate seeing marijuana and this is something we are going to be monitoring,” he said. “It could be a proverbial fluke that really has no meaning other than it just happened, but we are certainly going to be paying close attention to this. This is something we discussed at our Monday morning briefing and we certainly don’t want to see this as a trend.”

There were two driving while intoxicated arrests in the early morning hours on Sunday.

“That could tie in with the fact that 26 percent (of those arrested) were not affiliated with the university and they are coming from out of town,” Kurz said. “It does challenge us when people come in and think they can do whatever. These are things that we are alerted to, but are not sure yet in the aftermath of one weekend what it really means.”

Kurz and Dean said it's too soon to say if the increase will become a trend.

“It’s a three-day weekend and the weather doesn’t look like it is going to be my friend this week,” Kurz said of the Labor Day holiday. “I just anticipate that it is going to be very busy. If the weather stays like this, it will be a challenge right through homecoming, which is the second weekend of October. And then we have to think about Halloween. I am hoping it will slack off a bit between homecoming and Halloween.”

While arrest numbers were up, medical calls were down. McGregor Memorial EMS responded to 17 calls over move-in weekend, compared to 22 calls over move-in weekend last year, said Operations Manager Harry Mueller.