In the past decade, universities and colleges across the USA have attempted to develop profiles of college-student drinkers in order to develop programmes and policies for combating high-risk drinking behaviours. Most of these studies have relied on survey methods in which students self-report drinking behaviours and associated consequences, including experiencing an arrest. The present study employed municipal alcohol-related arrest reports to estimate the prevalence and characteristics of student arrests. Arrest data gathered over a period of 6 years in a mid-sized university in a Midwestern college town show that students accounted for nearly one-fifth of all alcohol-related arrests in the city. Factors for being arrested included being male, a first-year student, a Greek pledge, playing athletics and being enrolled in the College of University Studies. These arrest patterns resemble characteristics of students who self-report coming in contact with the police, thereby validating self-report studies.