Winter quarter around Ohio State is a sleepy time of year for students and the police officers who patrol the off-campus district. Some may call it the calm before the storm.

“The majority of the troubles happen in the springtime with all of the riotous behavior and misconduct,” said Sherry Mercurio, spokeswoman for the Columbus Division of Police.

During the 10 weeks of winter quarter, fewer people venture to house parties because it is too cold outside. Students tend to gather in smaller groups when they do go out.

“Generally, crime is down all over the city in the winter, mainly because it’s cold,” said Commander Suzanne Curmode.

Students may also use this time to focus more on school.

“I usually take more classes and harder classes in the winter because I know I’m not going to be out as much,” said Shawn Anderson, a senior in marketing and logistics.

With the snowy weather comes more traffic accidents, but fewer alcohol-related incidents such as open container violations.

The police department said it staffs the same amount of officers on patrol all year, but gear up for weekends when officers know things could happen, based on the history of previous years.

“I don’t see as many police out in the winter, but it always seems like come spring quarter all the cops are back out, and all of a sudden you pass them on every street,” Anderson said.

Even with an influx of people flocking to OSU in the fall because of classes and home football games, crime seems to be steady all year; criminals don’t seem to target one season over another.

“We deal with a lot of traffic issues in the fall with the home football games,” Mercurio said. “Outside of that, the only problems we’ve seen this year is Michigan weekend.”

In lieu of house parties, some students are trekking out to the bars around campus, but bar managers and owners said sales don’t appear to be overwhelmingly different between the fall and winter.

“Sales are definitely up during the fall because of football, but on a night-to-night basis we may pick up during the winter,” said Merf Conley, general manager of Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar.

Mercurio said spring is the problem season around campus for the police because of large, out-of-control parties. Students are cooped up all winter and tend to relieve this during spring with outdoor parties, and problems arise when they get a mob mentality.

“We walk a fine line. We don’t want to be an agitator, but we need to keep the conduct,” she said.