Fifteen students were arrested Thursday night during three different bar raids in the SU area, said Lt. Shannon Trice.

At about 10:30 p.m., Syracuse police and public safety officers raided Darwins Restaurant and Bar. One student was arrested for underage drinking, Trice said.

Officers then went to Konrad’s Sports Bar but found that the bar was empty after its owners heard rumors of a possible raid, Trice said.

At about midnight, officers raided Chuck’s Caf and arrested about 10 students for underage drinking and/or possession of a fake ID, Trice said. Two bartenders were also arrested for serving alcohol to underage patrons, he added.

Syracuse police officers scanned students I.D.s and checked to see that the date on the back of the card matched the date on the front, said officer Boris of SPD.

Officers chose to raid the bars after receiving several complaints from the state liquor authority, SU officials and parents.

Trice said that the goal of the raids wasn’t to set new records.

‘I didn’t hope to get anyone,’ Trice said.

He added that the single arrest at Darwin’s was an indication that Operation Prevent was working.

‘We do the best we can,’ said a manager at Chuck’s. ‘We did good considering 10 out of these 300-400 people are underage.’

Operation Prevent is a program funded by The New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. The effort is a collaboration between the university and Syracuse police to curb underage drinking focusing partly on the confiscation of fake ID’s.

Asst. News Editor Sam Edelstein also contributed to this story.

Published on February 5, 2004 at 12:00 pm