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Police at a party? Tweet it [The State, Columbia, S.C.]
(State (Columbia, SC) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 05--Late on weekend nights, thousands of USC students and other Columbia partygoers check their phones for the latest updates on cops in Five Points and the Vista.
"Undercover cop Pavlovs," reads one tweet sent about 2 a.m. Friday.
A few minutes later: "Undercover white USC hat garnet jacket. Pavs"
The updates are sent through a Twitter account operated by Drinking Ticket, an enterprise created by a USC junior who has big plans to turn it into an application for smartphones. Drinking Ticket has nearly 6,500 followers on Twitter and more than 2,000 fans on Facebook.
Now it has expanded its network to Clemson and College of Charleston. When the Clemson Drinking Twitter account launched earlier this week, it amassed 1,000 followers in 12 hours.
"If a fight breaks out in Pavlov's, you can report a fight in Pavlov's," said Alex Waelde, the student behind the website. "When police are in Salty Nut harassing everybody, that is a bar disturbance. We're providing a social service to the community."
Waelde has incorporated Drinking Ticket as limited liability company. He's got a five-member board of directors who join him in monitoring tweets as well as making pitches to potential investors.
That's right. Investors.
Waelde is raising capital to pay for computer programmers and a huge, secure server to run the smartphone apps that are still in the planning stages. He would not disclose how much he is trying to raise but said it was in the thousands.
Under Waelde's thinking, if even half of USC's undergrads are willing to pay between 99 cents to $1.99 for his smartphone app, then he will make money. And the student body is constantly turning over, meaning new customers arrive in Columbia every year. Add in subscriptions for students at other universities wanting information for their towns and he figures to earn a nice income.
All while he's making the rounds on the party scene, helping monitor police activity.
Waelde, 21, who grew up in the Upstate, has the support of his parents. His mother, Maria Zabreka Waelde, said she is not surprised by her son's creativity and drive to build an idea into a business. "Alex has always had an inquisitive, working mind," she said. "He's very focused. Very disciplined."
Waelde -- who is taking 21 credit hours this semester, a heavier class load than most students carry -- and his colleagues officially launched Drinking Ticket in early December. While it's wildly popular with college students, those in law enforcement circles are just catching on to it.
The Columbia Police Department recently learned of it. Mark Keel, chief of the State Law Enforcement Division, first heard about it when a reporter asked.
After hearing an explanation of the business, Keel said it probably wouldn't change how his officers operate. Word always spreads when police officers show up somewhere, he said. It's just a new technology for letting everyone know.
The same thing happens when Highway Patrol officers set up DUI checkpoints, said Keel, who used to run the agency that oversees the patrol.
"We knew that the first couple of people who went through checkpoints would be calling on their cellphones as soon as they went through to tell their friends," Keel said. "That's the age we live in."
Once the smartphone app is launched, Drinking Ticket will provide more information than the location of cops in bars, Waelde said.
For example, he is developing a feature to help students find free rides home if they are too drunk to drive.
Already, Waelde's website dispenses "what to do" information to students arrested on an alcohol-related charge.
Waelde formed the idea for Drinking Ticket after he was charged last spring for being a minor in possession of beer or wine. Most people advised him to pay the ticket and move on. But Waelde was concerned about having a criminal record, and he heard that he might lose his scholarship.
After researching the laws, Waelde learned that his scholarship was not in jeopardy over one alcohol charge and that programs existed that would allow him to expunge the charge from his record.
"To find out all that information, I had to do weeks and weeks of research, and it was difficult," he said. "So many kids have come to me and been, like, 'What do I do?' Now with this company, I'm going to be able to educate the masses."
The Twitter feeds work because Waelde and his board of directors closely monitor their Twitter accounts, especially from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
They don't repeat tips unless they know the sender or receive tips about police presence from more than one person. Sometimes, Waelde leaves a bar where he is hanging with friends to personally check a tip.
Waelde said his goal is not to facilitate underage drinking but to help students have a good time while avoiding legal trouble that could ruin an otherwise stellar college career.
"You went and got drunk downtown and got a ticket for your drinking, but you also have a 3.8 GPA and are going to medical school," Waelde offered as an example. "Why should you ruin your chances of going to medical school because you got caught underage drinking?"
Reach Phillips at (803) 771-8307.
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(c)2012 The State (Columbia, S.C.)
Visit The State (Columbia, S.C.) at www.thestate.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
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