Smoking, drinking and fighting may be a normal night downtown for some of Athens’ rowdier residents, but in Sanford Stadium it’s a sure-fire way to get ejected.

University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said about 300 spectators are ejected from each home football game, but few are arrested because of the volume of complaints police deal with.

“If you get arrested on game day you really had to push it,” he sad. “You’re getting a freebie. Take it and go.”

Williamson was careful to point out people can be arrested, and said more often than not arrests occur when a person is overly intoxicated.

“It’s not like the normal person you’d see Monday through Friday,” he said. “Some of them can just be real jerks.”

Police often get complaints about disruptive spectators, then verify the problem using 16 high-quality video cameras to see what problems individuals cause, Williamson said. Police will communicate with officers monitoring the cameras to track down people who need to be spoken to or ejected.

“If people around you are telling you you’re causing them a problem, that’s what’s going to get you thrown out,” he said.

Williamson said when troublemakers are approached they’ll often say they weren’t doing anything, but when officers look behind the person being questioned to see surrounding spectators all nodding their heads, the individual will be asked to leave.

Williamson said, for the most part, students aren’t the ones being asked to leave and when they are, they usually go quietly.

“With some of the older folks, they act like the police can’t make them leave,” he said. “Students, typically when arrested, they don’t cause a problem.”

Williamson said the main reasons people are arrested relate to drugs and violence, but one student arrested during this season’s first home game said he was arrested based on a misunderstanding.

Tyler Torres, a senior from Ellijay, said when cleaning up after tailgating he put a miniature bottle of alcohol in his back pocket and forgot about it until a stadium official ejected him and his wife for having it.

Torres said he tried to convince the official to confiscate the bottle and let them watch the game, but was still thrown out. When his wife continued to discuss the ejection with the official after exiting the gates, Torres said his wife was approached by an officer and placed under arrest.

When he tried to convince the officer to let his wife go, he was also placed under arrest.

“The arresting officer kind of took it too far,” he said. “It was honestly just a bad day. I think the cops were on edge because it was the first home game of the season.”

Associate Athletic Director Claude Felton said it’s unfortunate some fans must be ejected, but necessary to ensure the best game day experience possible.

“Anything that disrupts a pleasant game day experience for any of the fans is a concern and something we want to avoid,” he said. “The first priority is we want all our fans to come to the athletic events and have a pleasant game day experience.