Four half-empty beer bottles stood atop a police car Friday night as four young adults sat on the curb near the intersection of Monroe and Illinois streets.

With hands resting on their chins, they watched as Viper the police dog searches the vehicle for drugs. Carbondale police Sgt. Paul Echols, who supervised units that night, assessed the scene.

Officers stopped the group and found that they were illegally transporting alcohol. Echols found that two of the passengers were underage drinkers.

They were just two of the 26 underage drinking arrests that officers made over the holiday weekend. With money from a state grant, Carbondale police have increased weekend patrols aimed at fighting underage drinking.

Interim Police Chief Bob Ledbetter said consuming alcohol under the age of 21 violates the law, and his department must address it.

"When you mix alcohol with driving and various other activities, it can have tragic results if you don't have some sort of enforcement with that," he said.

Echols' shift began Friday night, and he expected to encounter alcohol-related problems.

"If we go all night here without a call, I'd be amazed," he said.

A wave of calls rolled in between 1 and 2 a.m. when patrons began to leave the bars. The parking lot outside Pinch Penny Pub and Club Sin gave Echols much to do.

Two fights broke out, both forcing officers to use pepper spray to subdue the combatants. No one was seriously hurt. However, Echols said paramedics transported a quadriplegic man to the Memorial Hospital of Carbondale after he lost consciousness from intoxication. Officers did not release his name or condition.

Echols dutifully enforces the law, saying, "If it were a perfect world and there were no problems and people could drink responsibly, then I'm sure the laws would be written differently. Generally, alcohol and youth don't blend."

Carbondale officers also removed a 20-year-old woman from Pinch Penny Pub on Saturday, and he said she was belligerent as they took her back to her residence hall.

"We were afraid she would never be able to walk back," he said.

Echols said university police later found the woman passed out in the back of a residence hall, where they interrupted a possible sexual assault. SIUC police said they did encounter the woman but could not confirm any details.

Authorities did not say whether an arrest was made in the incident.

SIUC Police Chief Todd Sigler said his officers did encounter the woman, and several students they have found have been unable to care for themselves because of alcohol consumption. Sigler said the number of students who drink so much they lose control is a small percentage of students, but it still worries him.

"I'm concerned about the level of intoxication students are getting to; I don't know what it's going to take for people to wake up," Sigler said.

Leaving the parking lot near Pinch Penny Pub, Echols spotted a young woman standing outside the bar with a drink. The woman appeared to be pregnant. Echols told her to go back inside. After 25 years on the job, Echols said nothing he sees surprises him.

He agreed with Sigler's notion that the number of underage drinkers is small, but he said that does not mean it still isn't dangerous.

"It's unfortunate what we see with underage drinking is all negative; the first thing to go is judgment," Echols said.