Cal Poly students can expect to see a host of new police measures designed to crack down on parties in their residential neighborhoods when school starts up in fall 2008.
Thanks to Measure Y, the half-cent sales tax measure passed in November 2006 and implemented in April 2007, the San Luis Obispo Police Department has been able to hire six new law enforcement officers and is recruiting one more.
At a special city council meeting held Tuesday at City Hall, police Chief Deborah Linden detailed the police department’s plans to use these new officers.
Her primary concern? Improve neighborhood wellness, or – as Cal Poly students might see it – crack down on loud parties.
The plan is to create “neighborhood teams” of officers that travel residential neighborhoods from late afternoon until 3 a.m. the following morning, Thursday through Saturday. These specially trained officers would be assigned to different neighborhood beats to develop relationships with the communities in that beat.
“We created these neighborhood teams with the mission to work proactively with the residents and improve their quality of life and decrease disturbances,” Linden said.
The main problems she cited were loud music, parties and alcohol violations, though she also mentioned automobile burglaries and theft as issues to be developed.
Linden hopes that these neighborhood teams can stop problems before they start.
“If we find out that someone is hosting a party, through passing out flyers or bringing alcohol into their homes, we want the officers to talk to them early about noise and alcohol restrictions before a problem occurs,” she said.
Additionally, thanks to Measure Y, officers would be paired with the workers of the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP) program. The SNAP program sends out students from Cal Poly or Cuesta College to deal with noise complaints Thursday through Saturday nights. This effort would decrease the SNAP workload, which is often backlogged during peak hours, according to Linden.
This new plan would also enable police officers to issue noise violations to residents without a complaint being called on them. Existing regulations require a citizen to call the police station and complain before an officer can issue a citation. But if Linden’s plan takes effect, an officer simply driving by a loud party can stop in and ticket the revelers.
“No warning” periods may also be implemented. Currently, the police department issues noise violators a warning before a ticket. But according to Linden, that is simply a procedure, not a rule. Certain weekends out of the year will be designated as “no warning” periods, where police officers will issue a citation to noise violators the first time they are called.
These “no warning periods” will be announced in advance, however.
“We aren’t trying to ambush students here,” Linden said. She added that all these plans had been presented to student groups, including the Associated Students Inc. Board of Directors, and have received no concerns.
The San Luis Obispo City Council expressed support for Linden’s plan and thanked local citizens for passing Measure Y. While the new officers train during summer, the full effects of the new plan will probably not be seen until fall quarter.
Brett Cross, a member of San Luis Obispo’s Residents for Quality Neighborhoods, thinks that these measures will help residents and students.
“We’re hoping that increased police presence will help with noise complaints and issues such as assault,” he said. “It’s a quality of life issue for everyone, both residents and students.”