Police are going door to door talking to College Park residents about noise restrictions

As new residents arrive in College Park for the beginning of the school year, University of Maryland and city officials are going door-to-door to talk with local renters about community expectations for students, said city Mayor Patrick Wojahn.

This is the fourth year of Knock and Talk, a joint program between Prince George’s County and the University of Maryland Police, the City of College Park Code Enforcement and the Prince George’s Property Owners Association. The Office of Student Conduct and the Office of Student Engagement also take part in the program, said Robert Ryan, the city’s director of public services.

“The idea is to just have a police officer, a code enforcement officer and maybe somebody representing the landlords to just come in and talk,” Wojahn said. “The purpose is to help remind residents what the obligations are of living in College Park.”

Between the 2010-11 and 2013-14 school years, the highest number of calls to the Code Enforcement hotline during the academic year was in September 2013 with 117 calls — 106 of which were noise-related — followed by 95 calls in September 2014 and 68 in September 2012, according to city reports.

In addition to on-campus tailgates during home football games, Knock and Talks have “certainly reduced the number of complaints that we’ve gotten about large house parties on the days of home games,” Ryan said.

Wojahn added that on-campus tailgating and the expansion of the student code of conduct to outside the campus have also helped lower the number of complaints.

District 3 Councilman Robert Day, who represents Old Town on the City Council, said he supports the Knock and Talks. In Old Town, there have been ongoing issues with house parties from students, he said.

But the Knock and Talks are sometimes directed at non-student renters as well.

At times, Knock and Talks can be “a little overwhelming when you have a lot of police officers,” Day said. “[But] we want to have the conversation now, instead of waiting afterwards and saying, ‘Well, you should’ve known that’ to code violators.”

Wojahn has attended one Knock and Talk in the past and said the goal is for students to understand that city and university officials are here to help.

“People just moving to College Park often don’t realize what type of community this is,” Wojahn said, adding that student residents aren’t always aware of the long-term residents who are unaffiliated with this university. “It’s a much more diverse community than that.”