Cornerstone Grill and Loft is banning the admittance of patrons who cannot produce a Maryland student ID or who are not identified as “regulars” starting last night, in an effort to shut out troublemakers plaguing College Park over the past two weeks.
A string of violent crimes, including three student robberies, two assaults on students and two incidents of gunfire prompted Cornerstone owner Mark Srour and general manager Stephen Taylor to implement the policy.
“It’s a tough situation, cracking down and trying to make the city safe, but we’re going to do our best,” Srour said. “I’m here to help protect the customers that come in.”
The dramatic step Cornerstone is taking is just one of the precautions city and university officials are taking this weekend, in an attempt to address a recent explosion of crime around the city. University officials met yesterday morning to strategize on public safety, and Prince George’s County Police have called for a meeting with all major players on and off the campus. It is unclear what steps administrators had committed to taking because they did not return calls for comment.
Srour, however, said he and his staff decided to take the measure because non-students and non-College Park residents are those Srour said are responsible for the recent violence.
“It’s got to be the surrounding areas who are coming in here and ruining this for everybody,” Srour said. “If you don’t have an ID and you look like you can cause trouble, we won’t let you in.”
University Police spokesperson Maj. Cathy Atwell said Srour’s plan “will have a positive impact if they do it,” and that College Park outsiders will be deterred from coming to the area.
“Most of the arrests that we make are for people not affiliated with the campus,” Atwell noted.
Bouncers will be left to decide who qualifies as a regular, however, and Srour called distinguishing between the regulars and outsiders “a gray area.”
“Obviously with football games, there are a ton of alumni who don’t carry their IDs anymore,” Srour said.
At the administrators’ meeting yesterday morning, members of the Incident Management Committee, which includes various university departments such as the health center and administration, discussed concerns.
Vice President of Student Affairs Linda Clement and Vice President of Administrative Affairs John Porcari both attended the meeting, but neither could be reached for comment by the time of publication. University spokesman Millree Williams declined to reveal details about what was discussed at the meeting.
“There are things we’re exploring the feasibility of and other strategies that involve police and coordinating with other jurisdictions that we do want to reveal publicly,” he said.
Maj. Kevin Davis, commander of the county police district containing College Park, said at Tuesday’s council meeting that he is planning a meeting for the various parties to come together and discuss the issue.
“I think we need to discuss the collective steps that we can all embark upon to ensure the College Park downtown area is the safest place it can and should be,” Davis said. “We all have a piece of this pie, and I think collectively we can take some steps to move forward.”
County police have assigned a special task force of marked and undercover officers to monitor the downtown area on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the times bars close since the first gunfire incident two weekends ago.
Atwell said the university police’s Strategic Enforcement Response Team has also increased patrol of the area and made arrests.
“We are increasing staffing and increasing enforcement,” she said. “You are going to see a lot more officers, and the officers are going to have a lot more encounters.”
Prince George’s County Police have also posted a large light-up sign facing Route 1 traffic stating “County and campus police are in the area” in an attempt to deter criminals. City officials committed to helping Davis in any way possible at the council meeting and applauded him for the action he has taken thus far.
“We’d be happy to explore anything Major Davis suggests,” District 3 Councilman Eric Olson said in an interview. “I believe the city council plays a facilitator role and continues to make citizens aware of what’s going on and also work with the business community.”
Olson added, however, that the city is also taking some of the matter into its own hands.
“We are actually requiring, or at least bringing together, businesses to hire additional off-duty officers for the downtown area,” Olson said. “You can’t require that I don’t believe, but we have put those into agreements in the past as they have come along.”
Srour has hired two police officers to regulate the inside and outside of his bar, but the officers were not on duty on the night shots were fired two weekends ago.
Officials also said the city’s contract policing program will help reduce the crime.
“We don’t have a police force; we have contract officers, and we need to make sure that those contract officers are out there on the streets,” Olson said.
Senior staff writer Sara Murray contributed to this report. Contact reporter Steven Overly at overlydbk@gmail.com.
