ST. CLOUD - Thousands of college students are venturing to St. Cloud this week, with classes starting back up at St. Cloud State University on Monday.

St. Cloud Police say they're preparing extra enforcement patrols to make sure students are safe and responsible.

St. Cloud Police Lieutenant Lori Ellering says officers will meet with hundreds of students when they move in to talk about general safety and safe alcohol consumption.

"During the daytime, you'll have a lot of officers out doing what we call "campus walks", where we physically go door to door in the campus area meeting with as many students and residents as we can."

Last year during the start of the St. Cloud State fall semester, police cited 137 people for various offenses in south side neighborhoods. That was down from 223 people cited the year before.

"That's exciting for us to know that we reduced it from the year before, we hope to have another reduction [in citations] this year" Ellering says.

The top three offenses last fall were for underage alcohol consumption (70 citations), open container on the street/sidewalk (45 citations) and for urinating in public (six citations). According to St. Cloud State officials last year, of the 137 people cited, only 39 percent were SCSU students.

Ellering says officers will be looking for any social host ordinance violations: those hosting a party with underage people and giving them alcohol.

"We want students to feel safe here and we encourage anyone if they have a police need or if they see something suspicious to call us."

Nearly 15,000 students are enrolled at St. Cloud State University.

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