WESTFIELD – With spring taking hold, area residents may feel the urge to celebrate the return of warm weather and those members of the community for whom the warm weather is also a harbinger of the end of academic responsibilities may feel twice the urge.
Locally, the students at Westfield State University have made a tradition of celebrating Spring Weekend and the off-campus aspect of the annual revelry, which this year will start today, is a concern to city police charged with ensuing domestic tranquility.
In Westfield, the duty of controlling the impact of college-aged celebrations falls on the community policing unit and Sgt. Eric Hall, the commander of those officers, reports that he has taken proactive steps to limit problems before they start and will take reactive measures to control problems which may still arise.
The community policing officers start their efforts in the fall with CP officers visiting each residence known to be rented by college students to meet the seasonal residents to explain some of ways students can avoid problems which sometimes arise among their demographic population. The officers also deliver literature the students can refer to so they can know what is expected of them by the community.
These problems largely revolve around a combination of consumption of alcohol and social gatherings.
The CP officers, during the school year, spend a significant portion of their duty hours attempting to limit alcohol use by underage students and responding to complaints about college-aged parties.
Hall reports that, as Spring Weekend approached, the CP officers took extra steps to keep the city calm and quiet.
He said that his officers made an effort in the past few weeks to re-visit all known college rental units to remind the college-aged tenants of the pitfalls ahead and to urge them to keep their celebrations small and quiet.
He said that one of the problems the students face is that gatherings which are planned for a small group may expand exponentially despite the intention of the hosts.
He says that officers tell tenants “You might be inviting ten but I’ll bet more than that will show up.”
Hall said that the students are reminded that, if a party starts to get out of hand, they can call police to regain control.
Hall said that his officers also take steps to control access of alcohol to underage students and recently staged a compliance check of the city’s 11 licensed package stores to ensure that the staffs at the stores are taking the proper efforts to ensure that minors are not buying liquor.
Unfortunately, he said, three establishments were caught selling liquor to underage customers so the stings were an opportunity to remind the management of their need to be vigilant.
Hall said that his officers also take steps to keep legal purchasers from passing the alcohol to younger classmates.
He said that, especially at this time of year, officers may monitor the parking lots of liquor stores for signs of purchases for underage consumers.
He said that, for example, if a vehicle occupied by college-aged youths pulls into a liquor store parking lot and a passenger goes inside the make a purchase, an officer may approach the vehicle when he returns and puts the liquor in the car.
If the operator is found to be younger than the legal drinking age, he or she, as the person in control of the vehicle, is subject to a citation and the liquor is seized.
Or, if anybody in the car is too young to drink legally, the operator is again subject to a citation because “if the alcohol gets put in the car, anyone in the car has construction possession” of the liquor and citations may be issued. And the alcohol is seized.
“The ultimate goal is to try to get the alcohol off the street so the kids don’t get hurt” he said.
After the groundwork is laid, Hall said that during Spring Weekend there will be “lots of enforcement.”
Like most weekends, officers will be on the lookout for youths walking, especially in areas of high density college-aged rentals, carrying alcohol, both while openly consuming or while transporting beer or other alcohol in backpacks and other containers.
In addition, Hall said, both his officers and the officer on patrol have been instructed to watch for signs of parties growing so they can offer reminders to keep the parties calm and quiet so neighbors don’t complain and parties don’t get shut down.
“We want the kids to have fun” he said, “but we want to make sure it doesn’t get out of control.”
