Joy Greenwald, Townsquare Media
Joy Greenwald, Townsquare Media
loading...

Despite the second largest crowd in Cheyenne Frontier Days history, the 119th "Daddy of 'em All" was relatively quiet for Cheyenne Police.

"105 citations were issued for underage drinking violations," said Officer Dan Long. "We made one arrest for fighting this year. Normally we average between 10 and 25 for fighting, depending on the year."

Long attributes the decreased violence to the proactive alcohol control measures that were taken this year.

"The collaboration with CFD in implementing these alcohol strategies for Frontier Park, I think that's really what reduced the underage drinking and the actual violent crime that we saw," said Long.

CFD passed all of their compliance checks, which were conducted with the use of covert underage buyers who would attempt to purchase alcohol.

All of the underage drinking violators obtained their beer from family members, friends or with a fake I.D. Approximately half of those issued citations were from out of town, which required their parents to respond to the park from areas such as Casper and Denver.

"What was shocking to me was that most of those arrested for underage drinking had driven to the park and planned on driving away," said Chief Brian Kozak. "I am certain that our proactive approach prevented DUIs and saved several lives."

The police department plans to work with CFD during the next year to develop additional strategies to reduce underage drinking at next year's show.

More From KGAB