Gee. Who could have predicted that a bunch of young people would rebel against authority? It boggles the mind.

Eva Palmer of the GW Hatchet reports.

Reported alcohol and drug violations rise after campus crackdown

A campus-wide crackdown on public intoxication partly caused a surge in reported violations last year.

Campus police officers began actively seeking out students who looked like they had been drinking alcohol, Senior Associate Vice President for Safety and Security Darrell Darnell said. That helped drive a 48 percent increase in alcohol violations, according to data released last week.

“It’s really a concerted effort on our part to really crack down on that,” Darnell said. “I’ve instructed my officers, and if they see individuals walking around campus and they look like they’re impaired, we’re going to stop them.”

Alcohol violations soared to 431 incidents in 2013. Violations have inched up slightly every year since 2009, and the 2013 jump was the largest during that time frame.

Since classes began this year, 79 alcohol violations have been tallied by campus police, according to the University’s crime log.

Matthew Malhiot, a consultant at Forensic Alcohol Consulting and Training, said campus police often focus on alcohol use to prevent other crimes like sexual assault or drunk driving. At least half of sexual assaults that occur on college campuses involve alcohol, according to Campus Safety magazine.

He added that an uptick in the recorded number of students breaking GW’s alcohol policy may not show the full picture of drinking on a campus.

“If you want to look at a problem, alcohol on campus, any problem, you have to look at the statistics that cannot be affected by enforcement,” he said.

Alcohol-related arrests on campus also jumped from one case in 2012 to 14 last year.