County police responded to 121 emergency calls for service to the four downtown College Park bars from January 2003 to May 2005, and as some bars tighten measures to deter potentially troublemaking nonstudents from entering, bouncers and managers at all of the bars said they often prefer to deal with incidents on their own.

In a review of service call responses made by Prince George’s County Police to Cornerstone Grill and Loft, R.J. Bentley’s, Lupo’s and Santa Fe Cafe, Cornerstone had the most frequent requests for police intervention. According to records, police responded to 40 calls at the bar in that time period, with fights and assaults accounting for more than a quarter of calls there.

Cornerstone owner Mark Stour did not return calls for comment.

R.J. Bentley’s and Lupo’s generated the second and third highest number of calls, with 28 and 27, respectively. The majority of calls at both bars were responses to burglar alarms, however, which managers attributed to false alarms. R.J. Bentley’s called police to respond to three fights and one assault and Lupo’s called police for two fights and one assault in that time period.

Santa Fe generated the fewest calls of the four bars, with two calls for assaults and none for fighting. Marc McKenna, a bouncer at Santa Fe, said the crowd there tended to be older and had “very few fights.”

“Mainly, I’m kicking people out because they’re too drunk,” McKenna said.

Bouncers and managers at Bentley’s, Cornerstone and Lupo’s said brawls are the most common disruptions, but police are rarely called to deal with them.

Bentley’s owner John Brown said he prefers his staff to deal with incidents on their own and not involve police, and Lupo’s manager Ruichen Chow said he could not recall the last time police were called to deal with a major incident.

But Cornerstone and Lupo’s managers said problems – mostly caused by nonstudents – prompted higher cover charges aimed at keeping them away.

Cornerstone General Manager Stephen Taylor previously said the bar had initially asked a $15 cover charge for nonstudents and quickly rose the charge to $20 early this year on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. This semester, the bar has raised the cover charge to $30 for nonstudents.

“We’re trying to keep out the bad element that’s creeping into this area,” Taylor said.

Chow said Lupo’s has charged a $20 cover charge on Thursdays, the bar’s busiest night, to nonstudents for as long as he could remember. Chow said the cover charge was useful in keeping a better college feel.

“It’s intimidating for a student to walk into a bar where it’s not all students their age,” Chow said. “There are shady guys who are not of college age who think it is easier to hit on college-age women.”

University Police spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Atwell said the party-town reputation of College Park draws a number of people who contribute to dangerous or criminal situations at night downtown. Many of those people have no university affiliation, she said.

“We have a lot of people who frequent College Park because it’s an easy place to go where they know there will be a lot of activities,” Atwell said.

Mark Magaw, county police commander for District One, which includes College Park, denied a request for comment.

Atwell said excessive drinking downtown plays a major role in the destruction of property. But a real danger lies in students leaving parties or bars alone and getting involved in drunken brawls that commonly spill out onto Route 1, she said.

Atwell noted that student Brandon Malstrom was stabbed and killed three years ago as a result of a fight after a downtown party.

Robberies in College Park number at least 13 – many late at night on weekend nights – while the number of on-campus robberies reached a ten-year high of 15 on Sept. 9.

“Most often, there is an argument between two people in the bar, the people get bounced and then a fight takes place outside the bar,” Atwell said. “When people are fighting, other passerbys who know the individuals often get hurt because they try to intervene.”

Contact reporter Kevin Litten at littendbk@gmail.com.