Police log 242 charges at annual horse race
USC walloped Clemson Saturday — 35-9 — but it wasn’t on the football field this time.
Thirty-five USC students were charged at Carolina Cup this year, more than from any other school, according to Camden Police Chief Joe Floyd.
College of Charleston and Coastal Carolina University came the closest to matching USC, with 14 and 10 students charged, respectively.
In all, police issued 242 charges at the annual horse race and outdoor party, including 185 underage drinking tickets, Floyd said. Of those, nearly 70 went to jail.
This isn’t USC’s first time topping the charts for Carolina Cup arrests, Floyd said. The school sends more students than any other, and the charge count usually reflects that.
But other schools with lots of students there didn’t have as many charges.
Clemson University and Wake Forest University were the second- and third-biggest student contingents, and they fell lower on the top-5 list. Clemson was No. 4 with nine charges, and Wake Forest was No. 5 with six, Floyd said.
About 25 colleges had students charged, including a Rhode Island school and Oxford University, Floyd said.
Fewer people were incarcerated at Carolina Cup this year, Floyd said, but racegoers racked up more charges compared to last year, when police issued 225 charges.
“I think the general mood of the College Park area this year was, ‘Party to have a good time, but don’t get stupid,’” Floyd said. “I think that message may have gotten out there.”
The jump was driven by an increase in underage drinking tickets, Floyd said, and other than minor charges, police didn’t see many notable incidents. They made 39 disorderly conduct charges and 10 for fake identification or providing false information.
Floyd attributed the trends to the increased police presence. A total of 17 agencies from around the state sent 135 officers, a record number for Carolina Cup.
They were waiting in College Park, the student-focused tailgate area that took the bulk of police attention, before students arrived, Floyd said, which he thinks helped deter more serious events. The increased presence also led to more tickets being issued, he said.
“I think it did exactly what he hoped it would do, and that was be a preventative mechanism,” Floyd said.
Fights have been regular occurrences in College Park, but this year, police think they broke up any potential fights before they escalated, because they haven’t found references to any altercations online.
“It’s likely that there weren’t any fights, or if there was, it happened so quick, nobody could get a camera out,” Floyd said. “There’s only 10,000 phones right there in that area during that time, so I’m sure that if one would have happened, somebody would have a phone out.”
Saturday’s running of the Carolina Cup also marked the first time there were enough police officers so the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office didn’t send any deputies inside.
Instead, they focused on drunken driving and other incidents outside the grounds, and they handed out 28 open container violations connected to the festivities, Lt. Danny Templar said.
They also made two drunken driving arrests, but those aren’t conclusively tied to Carolina Cup, Templar said. Other agencies made one or two more, Sheriff Jim Matthews said.
Matthews said that’s a decrease, but he wasn’t sure how steep a decline it was.
He attributed the drop to the increased prevalence of groups designating drivers. In particular, he said, he’s heard some fraternities required their pledges to drive them home, a policy he called a “phenomenal idea” and a “responsible solution.”
“If that’s what they did, I would say my hat’s off to the fraternities for doing that,” Matthews said.