It starts as something small: an insult, a slight shove or even a dispute over a parking spot. But, these small interactions can quickly snowball into a full-blown fight.
Police Lt. Adam Price has served with the Oxford Police Department (OPD) for 19 years. He said that although there has been a slight increase in the number of fights last year, the most surprising thing is that the fights are not restricted to a specific demographic.
“It's a mix of everything,” Price said. “Some of them are involving people that are above 21 … some of them are above 18, involved with a juvenile. They're varying ages. There's no rhyme or reason.”
Alex Patneaude, a senior cyber security major who worked as a shift lead at Brick Street Bar up until Sept. 5, said fights broke out between both Miami University students and non-Miami students.
“Sometimes it's people visiting from a different college,” Patneaude said. “We've had fights about people getting [so] worked up that they can't get into the bar … Sometimes it's just people who are locals from the town.”
According to OPD records, there is a small uptick in the number of fights compared to last year. In 2024, there were nine assaults reported from Aug. 19 to Sept 16. In 2025, there were 12 assaults reported over the same time frame.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
“We've increased some patrols, and we've looked at some other things that might lead to some of these fights,” Price said. “I think alcohol probably has a good play in a lot of those, and we've done some different things with our alcohol enforcement to try to address some of
these issues.”
Price also said most fights occur in the Mile Square area between midnight and 3 a.m. on weekends. The reasons for the fights are varied, but multiple fights have been instigated by verbal insults.
Jason, who is using a pseudonym to protect his job at Brick Street, said he thinks the amount of fights has been similar to past years, but agreed that weekends were the most common days for fights.
“Some weekends it's bad, some weekends it's good,” Smith said. “I don't think every weekend there's a fight.”
Price said the true number of fights that have occurred this year is unknown because people can be hesitant to report an assault. OPD sometimes receives reports from the hospital rather than the victims themselves. Delays in reporting also make it difficult for OPD to investigate incidents and hold the responsible parties accountable.
“A lot of these reports that we've had don't end up in charges because people change their minds, or they don't follow through,” Price said. “Some of them we get where the assault occurs, and they don't report it … They don't know who did it, or they don't want to tell us who did it.”
Price said bystanders are often the ones to call in an assault, and many people will record something if they see it, but added that it is rare for someone to try to step in to stop a fight.
“Take care of your friends and have situational awareness,” Price said. “It only takes one knucklehead to ruin everybody else's night or ruin their weekend.”
Read More
Who is the Dean of Students?
By Sofie Terlesky and Sydney Mulford | 5 hours agoStudents may have seen Dean of Students BaShaun Smith’s four kids running around Western dining hall, or heard about his extensive Cleveland Browns collection in the dean of students’ office, but what does the dean of students actually do?
