The warm weather persuaded many students to venture outside of their homes and to the bars this weekend, but the police also stopped at a number of establishments, including the State Bar and Grill and Johnny O’s Restaurant and Bar, to ticket underage bar-goers.

Captain Mary Schauf, assistant chief of police for the Madison Police Department, said routine bar checks are a part of law enforcement’s business.

“We try to be random in that routine checking,” Schauf said. “But [for] some bars, it’s pretty obvious to see there’s an issue with young people in the bar because they look young.”

Matt Goetsch, a manager at State Street Brats, said he believes it is logical for the police to check up on bars when there are new freshmen in Madison or when a new batch of fake identification cards are released.

“There is a definite trend to hit it harder or to crack down at the start of the semesters,” Goetsch said.

Andrew Newman, a University of Wisconsin junior, was at Johnny O’s Saturday night when two policemen entered and began checking identification cards.

“I thought the police handled it pretty well, because they basically IDed people that looked suspicious,” Newman said. “The fact that a bunch of girls ran into the guys’ bathroom was pretty suspicious.”

Although the police department prefers to work closely with establishments, the department may overhear information that underage students are drinking alcohol in certain bars, according to Police Chief Noble Wray. The department may also receive an anonymous phone call, Schauf added.

“It really does depend on the particular establishment because each establishment is different and they present us with different issues,” Wray said. “There is a direct correlation between the problems that would occur at a licensed establishment and their ability to manage that particular establishment.”

Schauf said it is not unusual to find two or three underage people in a bar, but if the police find large numbers of those who are under 21 inside, they will continue routinely checking the bar.

“If it’s very clear that the tavern was targeting underage people, we would have a concern,” Schauf added.

According to Goetsch, the police tend to go to State Street Brats every Tuesday during their Flip Night drink special, but for the past three weeks, the police have not found a single underage person at the bar. Many times the police come to Brats because the large number of people allows a higher chance for the police to find underage students, he added.

“It does go in cycles or waves,” Goetsch said. “When our door guys are strong, the police will come in three nights in a row and they find no one, so they won’t come back.”

Jessie Scott, a manager at the Kollege Klub, said although entering bars and carding students is effective, she believes the police pick on bars that have a reputation for letting underage people through the front doors.

“I think a lot of times they tend to hit the wrong bars,” Scott said. “Our bouncers have contests to see how many [underage people] they can deny.”