{"id":7622,"date":"2011-03-09T17:29:07","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=7622"},"modified":"2019-11-28T07:20:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T11:20:19","slug":"foxborough-gets-tough-on-public-inebriation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2011\/03\/09\/foxborough-gets-tough-on-public-inebriation\/","title":{"rendered":"Foxborough Gets Tough On Public Inebriation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is an interesting story about how Foxboro is getting tough<\/a> on public inebriation.\u00a0\u00a0 They are implementing $200 fines for public drunkenness.\u00a0 Hey Fitzy<\/a> will you prepay that charge or just settle up each week?<\/p>\n

\n

FOXBOROUGH <\/strong>\u2014 In the past three years, as local bars and tailgaters have multiplied, the Patriots\u2019 hometown has seen a surge in public drunkenness, with police carting off hundreds of people either passed out on bar stools or otherwise showing signs of being inebriated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it isn\u2019t a state law, I feel it\u2019s unfair to focus on us here in Foxborough,\u2019\u2019 said Matt Egan, a barman at Waxy O\u2019Connor\u2019s Irish Pub on Main Street. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re not going to be treated fairly. It\u2019s more of a problem at the stadium. It just seems open to a lot of potential abuse.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The idea of police officers using their judgment to determine whether someone drank too much and should be subject to a fine bothered some bartenders.<\/p>\n

Paicos said town officials are also concerned about upcoming concerts at the stadium. \u201cHopefully, this will be a deterrent,\u2019\u2019 Paicos said. \u201cAnd if $200 doesn\u2019t seem to make an impact, then eventually we\u2019ll get to the level where we\u2019ll raise it again.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last six months, we\u2019ve already done more than we did in the 12 months before that,\u2019\u2019 said town administrator Kevin Paicos. \u201cWe\u2019re on a pace to eclipse what we did last year, and we are fast outstripping our resources.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The 100-to-47 vote Monday night was inspired in part by a record 95 people taken into protective custody and another 16 people arrested for crimes on the night in December when the Patriots trounced the New York Jets.<\/p>\n

Since 2007, when the town issued 15 additional liquor licenses inside and outside Gillette Stadium, the number of people deemed publicly intoxicated and taken into protective custody has nearly tripled, with police detaining 933 last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to think, \u2018Instead of having that gin and tonic or that beer, that maybe I\u2019ll have a bottle of water,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary said the law had nothing to do with the deaths of 20-year-old Debra Davis of Milton and her friend Alexa Latteo, 19, of Mansfield, who were killed in a 2008 car crash after a day of drinking at a music festival at Gillette Stadium.<\/p>\n

To curb the problem, a Special Town Meeting this week approved a $200 fine for anyone taken into protective custody for public intoxication, making Foxborough and Dedham, according to the state attorney general\u2019s office, the only two towns with such bylaws in the state. Town Meeting also imposed the same fine for those caught smoking marijuana in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a huge, growing community problem with people who are impaired by alcohol and who put themselves and other people in the community in jeopardy,\u2019\u2019 said Edward T. O\u2019Leary, chief of the Foxborough Police Department. \u201cEducation programs have not been successful in curbing the continuing trend. We need to do something about it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Officials at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts questioned how the bylaw would be implemented. Before the new fines take effect, they need approval from officials at the attorney general\u2019s office, who have yet to review the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a subjectivity problem,\u2019\u2019 said John Reinstein, the ACLU\u2019s legal director. \u201cWhat\u2019s to determine public drunkenness? Is it the same as drunken driving? What\u2019s the standard, how will it be enforced, and is there some fair way of screening out those who shouldn\u2019t be taken into custody in the first place?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe question is whether the town is unfairly extracting money from people who shouldn\u2019t have to subsidize Foxborough and the New England Patriots.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Jeff Cournoyer, a spokesman for the Kraft Group, which owns the stadium and the Patriots, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary insisted the bylaw has nothing to do with boosting town revenues. He said the fines cover the costs of taking someone into custody, including the use of hazmat crews to hose down cells where people have become sickened by drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ludicrous to suggest that this is for funding,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Foxborough receives a steady stream of money from the Kraft Group, including nearly $2 million a year from ticket sales, $1.8 million a year to pay local and volunteer police details for stadium events, and $179,000 in administrative fees, town officials said.<\/p>\n

When asked how his officers determine whom to take into custody, O\u2019Leary said they use common sense. \u201cThey determine whether the person is unaware of their surroundings or they exhibit the odor of alcohol,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cBeing passed out or being covered in vomit would be another indication.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He said those who agree to take a breath test are released if they have a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 percent or lower. Those put into protective custody are usually held until they are sober.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tell us about your experiences in Foxboro in our New York Jets forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is an interesting story about how Foxboro is getting tough on public inebriation.\u00a0\u00a0 They are implementing $200 fines for public drunkenness.\u00a0 Hey Fitzy will you prepay that charge or just settle up each week? FOXBOROUGH \u2014 In the past three years, as local bars and tailgaters have multiplied, the Patriots\u2019 hometown has seen a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured-editorials"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-1YW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47484,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7622\/revisions\/47484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}