The Athens Police Chief has called for additional consequences for repeat offenders of the “nuisance party” law to help combat the unlawful behaviors that he said have become part of the daily party culture at Ohio University.
During the Athens City Council meeting Tuesday, Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle explained plans to break the habits of rowdy partiers by consistently enforcing the nuisance party law and asked council for further sanctions to help his department’s efforts.
Officers can currently arrest everyone at a non-compliant party, but Pyle, acting as spokesman for the Multi-House Party Task Force, asked council to create an ordinance with additional consequences for repeat offenders.
No details about who would author the ordinance or create the consequences of such a law were discussed during the meeting.
Hours after an arson fire and riot designation shut down April’s Palmer Fest, Pyle said students’ unlawful and uncontrollable fest behaviors would have to change. Since then, a task force of city and university officials spent the summer working on the issue.
Some have called for a ban of the fests or that the city sponsor the block parties like it does for Halloween, but Pyle said the task force has “not been able to get past the constitutional hurdle to prevent assembly.”
The city cannot ban the fests because they are on private property, but the uncontrollable behaviors that often come with fests can be combatted during parties throughout the year, Pyle said.
Athens Police have not encountered any multiple-house or fest-like parties this school year, Pyle said, but 55 of the 71 noise violations since Aug. 23 were student related. That number illustrates the problem of fest-like behavior extending beyond the fest season, he said.
“This conduct that we see at fests is also at virtually every house party,” he said. “There can’t be a fest standard (for behavior) and a daily or weekly standard.”
The stronger enforcement of existing nuisance laws should help curb unlawful behavior at parties, said Service-Safety Director Paula Horan-Moseley, adding that the strict enforcement of current city law would prevent a fest from becoming out of hand.
“All we’re asking is that the people at those parties be respectful and appreciate their neighbors,” said Councilwoman Chris Fahl, D-4th Ward. “I like to think that if you ask for more, people will rise to the occasion.”
Pyle said that students have, for the most part, cooperated with police and that there is a growing group of students who are beginning to combat the school’s party atmosphere.
About 40 percent of complaints about rowdy parties come from other students, he said.
“There’s a silent majority of students who want the atmosphere to change at Ohio University,” Pyle said.
In years past, the police department has been tolerant when it came to shutting down parties, Pyle said, adding he now wants to change the party atmosphere in Athens.
“We’re not trying to stop parties; we’re simply trying to stop unlawful behavior that occurs at parties,” Pyle said. “Do it safely. Do it legally.”
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