Members of the College Park City Council are urging police to release a report about tactics used to disperse a celebratory riot Feb. 12, hoping to look for “lessons learned” that would help them plan for the university’s next big game.
The council has praised the combined force of University Police, Park Police and Prince George’s County Police for rapidly dispersing crowds and minimizing property damage after Maryland’s victory over Duke University, but District 3 Councilmen Eric Olson and Andy Fellows were concerned about the number of injuries and asked if police had conducted a review.
Five people were injured during the riot and 14 were arrested — half of them students. While many students and administrators have condemned rioters for their disorderly behavior, others have questioned the tactics police used to break up the crowds.
Public Services Director Bob Ryan said he did not expect to receive a report from police, and any critique of tactics was likely to be purely internal without written reports that could be made public.
But Fellows insisted it would be in the city’s best interest to review the riot policy, if only to consider how to refine the city’s response.
“It makes sense for us to plan for the next time — in some form or another, there may be a ‘next time,’” Fellows said. “It makes sense for us to involve students and to involve the [university] administration.”
The city has had a role in planning riot response in the past, Ryan said, criticizing county police for their lack of response to rioters who caused $500,000 in damage to city property in 2001. In their swift and strong reaction during the most recent riot, police were responding to the community’s call for “zero tolerance” for property destruction, he said. There was almost no damage to public property reported this year, though the city did pay $1,000 for post-riot cleanup.
At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Student Government Association President Aaron Kraus asked the council to join him in calling for a forum with county police to discuss riot response tactics and the possibility of university-sanctioned postgame celebrations. County police said they will respond to Kraus’ request by the end of this week.
Mayor Stephen Brayman was skeptical police would want to attend a forum on the campus if it was likely they would be openly criticized for their tactics, and he encouraged Kraus to consider a smaller, private meeting that could be “truly unbiased and untempered.”
Kraus said he hoped to involve fraternities and sororities in pushing for planned postgame celebrations that might draw students away from congregating on Route 1.
“If it comes out of the SGA or the administration, it has a ‘nerdy’ cachet about it,” he said.
District 1 Councilman John Krouse urged him to advertise the forum extensively and make it open to all city residents, and Kraus agreed.
“On this subject more than any other, the students and the city need to work together,” he said.
