Students were warned. Two weeks before classes started, police informed fraternities of an impending crackdown on the typical school greeting festivities.
“The police were cracking down on a lot of the activity that goes on at the beginning of pretty much every fall,” Interfraternity Council President Brandon Bienstock said. “They said they basically wanted to change the culture, whether that’s through breaking up the parties or following noise violations or putting more people out there on foot … Their goal was to limit the parties going on.”
Come Thursday night, the streets behind Route 1 were flooded with flashing red and blue lights. “Operation Full-Court Press,” as the effort was dubbed by some police officers, was in full effect, but music still blared along College Avenue this weekend. Droves of students wandered the neighborhood in search of parties, and by most accounts, they found them.
Police drastically ramped up patrols last weekend, but after a standard start to a semester in College Park, they’re now saying they never targeted parties.
“The goal of it is to have some high visibility,” said University Police spokesman Paul Dillon. “We’re not targeting anything in particular, in parties and so forth, but we are going to enforce the laws down there.”
Police don’t yet have statistics to show the effect of their presence, but it was hard to miss.
Several Sheriff’s Office cars were idling in the CVS parking lot. Hyattsville Police Department cars were sitting on Hartwick Avenue talking to area business managers. University Police Auxiliary crews were patrolling the sidewalks on foot and bicycle. The Prince George’s County Police were stopping cars and patrolling the College Park neighborhoods.
But that didn’t stop Josh, a freshman business major, who said he had no problem finding backyard keggers this weekend.
“If you take a walk down College [Avenue] or Knox [Road], I’d say you’ve got a have a 100 percent success rate,” Josh said. “And not just one party. Really, a lot.”
Meanwhile, police were making traffic stops along Route 1, College Avenue and the College Park shopping center, and continued their patrols.
Dillon said the police’s mission was to be seen: both by students and potential criminals.
“Our goal is to be as visible as we can both to our new constituents and campus and the criminal element that might be down there, that they see a lot of police officers and that they take their business elsewhere,” Dillon said.
“If there are large parties, alcohol and underage drinking, we’re going to go after that stuff, but that’s not our goal,” he added.
Of course, this isn’t to say that the parties went unmonitored.
Robert Cofske, a College Park code enforcement officer, knows this better than most.
“Usually they come in bunches,” he said after getting his first call Saturday night. “When it starts, it starts.”
City code enforcement officers patrolled the streets this weekend with county-contracted police officers and Director of Public Works Bob Ryan. They responded to noise complaints, inspected bars for capacity issues or blocked exits and issued tickets for litter and vandalism.
The first house they responded to was familiar to the group. They were there twice the night before.
The cops and code enforcement officers rolled up quickly and shined their flashlights as they walked up to the scene of fleeing students and flipped the two beer pong tables.
“I’ve never seen ‘em walk away so fast,” a policeman remarked.
Ryan knew where they were headed.
“They’re going to the next party.”
Kate McGonigle contributed to this report.
rabdill@umdbk.com, rhodes@umdbk.com
