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Party Patrols: Best Practice Guidelines for College Communities

NCJ Number
233786
Date Published
October 2010
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This guide draws on the experience that campus and community law enforcement agencies have gained in conducting party patrols across jurisdictions, which are designed to address unruly parties hosted by young adults or college students in residential areas of college towns.
Abstract
The guide first reviews the legal tools that can be effective in the work of party patrols. These legal tools are the local ordinances and/or policies that provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to address off-campus parties efficiently and effectively. This is followed by a section in the guide called "messaging and visibility." Students are the primary target audience for getting the message out about party patrols and the attention police are giving to party nuisance calls. Specific messaging toward residents of neighborhoods is also important, since they want to know that police are aware of and are giving attention to nuisance parties. Suggestions for messages on and off campus are offered. The guide's next section pertains to "party prevention and education." It focuses on tools that are effective in preventing problem parties. These include the dissemination of information to students, neighborhoods, landlords, and businesses regarding the risks associated with loud, large, unlawful, or out-of-control parties; tips on how to have a safe gathering of friends should also be circulated. The fourth section of the guide addresses the proactive identification and monitoring of party locations. Social networking media can be monitored to determine where parties/events are being held; this allows police to plan accordingly. A section on collaborative partnerships focuses on an organizational structure for city and campus police in cooperating to counter nuisance parties. Appended examples of local ordinances in six California cities that pertain to nuisance parties