As the academic year comes to a close, the PACE project is expected to release results next week regarding the voluntary drink-special ban implemented by a number of bars in the downtown area at the beginning of the fall semester.
According to Aaron Brower, the principal investigator in the PACE project and UW professor of social work and Integrated Liberal Studies, studies have shown that the drink-special ban was effective in reducing crime in the downtown area on Friday evenings this year.
However, he also reported that criminal activity rose on Thursday evenings, nights when drink specials are allowed, and this activity stayed constant on Saturday evenings.
He said that because only a handful of bars participated in the ban and that the actions were voluntary, the results came as a surprise.
“We were really surprised by this decrease,” Brower said. “We don’t quite know why there was a raise on Friday and not Saturday.”
Because of these results, Brower is confident that a more widespread ban in the future would work, adding that many “thought bar owners were just being clever” but that they really cooperated well by continuing to enact the ban for the whole year.
“This is great … we’ll continue this,” Brower said.
Brower also discussed possible reasons for the difference in crime activity from Friday to Saturday, mentioning the “fatigue effect,” which ultimately means that on Saturday, students are more tired and less likely to go out drinking.
Brower also noted the difference in drinking behaviors during football season.
“On Saturdays, people are out drinking post-football games,” Brower said, noting the “huge” difference between home and away games in that more people drink when the Badgers play at home as opposed to away.
Although the PACE project is expected to release these results reporting the decrease in disruptive behavior, some area bar owners feel differently regarding the effects of the banning of drink specials.
“I haven’t noticed any real change in behavior on any of the nights,” Bullfeathers owner and Tavern League member Dick Lyshek said, adding that he has not noticed any changes at all over the year, such as a decrease in profit or in overall number of students attending the bar.
In past months, bar owners and managers have mentioned that they hoped results would show that the drink specials were not causing the behavior problems. Many truly believed drink specials had no impact on past alcohol-related issues. One example of these issues are the problems that occurred on Halloween; however, during the weekend the problems surfaced when no drink specials were available, and Thursday night, when drink specials were in full swing, there were no major problems cited.
The voluntary ban left bars unable to offer drink specials on Friday and Saturday nights and sparked much debate between bar owners and those pushing for the ban. This ban was part of the PACE project’s overall initiative to change the UW campus and community culture to reduce high-risk drinking and its consequences.
