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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2000)
Police continued from page 1A happy with the Party Patrol and its policies. Confrontations between students and officers issuing cita tions are common. Students take is sue with the use of scarce resources to police what they see as a minor problem. In addition to the riots, the EPD noticed an increase in alcohol-re lated calls for service, which in clude disputes at bars, disorderly parties, furnishing alcohol to mi nors and noise complaints. Com plaints peaked in 1998 at 2,499, ac cording to EPD reports. “We thought that was way too many,” Gilliam said. “It’s amazing how many calls we don’t even get to because there are just so many of them.” EPD had been issuing more warnings than citations, going to parties and asking hosts to quiet down and keep things under con trol. “They weren’t getting the mes sage,” he said. “They were taking advantage of our niceness.” EPD changed its tack and is now practicing “zero tolerance,” or as' Gilliam characterized it, a consis tent enforcement policy. Minors caught drinking are no longer mere ly given a warning. The new policy, which is costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars annually in overtime, is reflected in the number o'f MIPs issued in the years since consistent enforcement began. In 1997, EPD issued 505 MIPs. By 1999, that number had nearly tripled. There is no tolerance for other alcohol and partying related offenses either. Gilliam said the Party Patrol is also issuing more ci tations for furnishing alcohol to mi nors, open containers and noise vi olations. Although EPD has adopted a more aggressive stance when it comes to enforcement, officials re alize they will never completely eradicate partying and under-age drinking. However, the department is try ing to curb what Gilliam called a “tremendous drinking culture” around the University. “U of O has a reputation of being a party school — people come for that,” he said. In addition to the enforcement, EPD is involved in a variety of edu cation and outreach programs meant to discourage underage drinking and irresponsible partying. Paying the price The cost of staffing the Party Pa trol is of concern to many. Taxpay ers spent $92,000 on overtime pay for Party Patrol officers in fiscal year 2000. In addition, the Friday and Saturday night patrols pull of ficers away from other areas of the city to patrol the party beat, leaving some neighborhoods without cov erage. “It’s just very staff-intensive,” Gilliam said. “It’s costing the tax payers a lot of money.” EPD has been looking at ways to recoup some of these costs. The de partment is especially concerned with the cost of responding to the same address multiple times. An ordinance currently being re viewed by the City Council would assess a special response fee to in dividuals who host parties that re quire multiple police responses to the same address. Eugene City Manager Jim John son noted that the idea for the spe cial response fee came, in part, from ordinances already in exis tence in Corvallis and Berkeley, Calif. Ward 3 City Councilor Bonny Bettman, who represents the neigh borhoods where most of the Party Patrol’s calls for service originate, said she is generally opposed to the philosophy of a fee-for-service ap proach to policing. She said, how ever, that she would support a ver sion of the special response fee ordinance “with some clarification and maybe some tweaking.” “It’s worth a try. Right now, it is the only solution,” she said. “The ordinance is attempting to strike a balance, focusing on illegal activity and being a deterrent. It puts the onus on the party giver to be re sponsible. “Nobody thinks it will eradicate partying,” she added. Christa Shively, ASUO commu nity outreach director, has been in volved in talks with EPD about the special response fee ordinance. She said she understands the rationale for such a fee and even supports the general message it tries to send. “They’re going back to the same residence from year to year because people aren’t practicing responsi ble partying,” she said. But the current version of the or dinance is too loosely worded and open to interpretation, Shively said. zordially invited to attend your NEW Career Center's jiomz Thursday, October 26, 2000 Second Floor, Hendricks Hall We wish to welcome you into the 2000-01 school year in our newly remodeled office. Please feel free to visit us between the hours of 10:30 turn, - 4:30p.m. for this special occasion. Refreshments. Erin Swanson-Davies Emerald Party Patrol officers of the Eugene Police Department respond to a call of a noise disturbance at a fraternity house Oct. 20. Unwelcome guests Relations between the Party Pa trol and the partygoers they interact with are often hostile. It’s not sur prising, considering the circum stances surrounding most of the in teractions between the two groups. Students don’t understand why there is so much attention being paid to their activities. Jay Thomas, a mefmber of Theta Chi fraternity, was visiting the chapter house Friday night when a squad of police arrived to investi gate a noise complaint. Thomas, a senior of legal drinking age, watched as police issued MIPs to people around the party. He said he wopders why so many police offi cers are necessary to bust what could hardly be described as a large, out-of-control party. “There’s methamphetamine houses in this area,” he said. "That is far more dangerous.” Connor Sellers, a senior who was also at the Theta Chi fraternity, said he thinks the Party Patrol is a “terri ble misallocation of funds.” Police enforcement of partying at other some Pacific-10 Conference EPD calls for service recorded a recent decrease in calls for service for and foud music 1998 1999 YTD through Russ Weller Emerald schools is decidedly less stringent than enforcement in Eugene. James Tomlinson, a University of Arizona student who was issued an MIP ci tation while visiting Eugene for a Ducks football game, said that po lice in Tucson are much more le nient when it comes to underage drinking and parties in general. Sgt. Randy Fougner with the Tempe, Ariz., police department, said police who patrol Arizona State University spend most of their time “dealing with getting the party broken up. Checking IDs and policing alcohol violations is an an cillary concern.” Eugene police said they need to go into the parties they bust with lots of officers for their own safety. Party Patrollers have been injured in the line of duty by drunken students who get out of control, Gilliam said. Six were injured last fall. “Of course, if it turns out to be a candlelight dinner with two peo ple, it’s a little bit of overkill,” Gilliam said. 1
