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.
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