If you’ve ever been out on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night in Eugene, you’ve seen the police patrols on bike, in car or on foot. If a party gets too big or loud, these patrols intervene by issuing tickets and shutting the party down.
These patrols, deemed the “Party Patrol,” focus on calls from neighbors regarding unruly gatherings and prohibited noise. According to Melinda McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Eugene Poilce Department, between the late 1990s and 2012 there were seven riots or crowd-related issues.
“The issues include riots of up to 1,500 people, street parties, damage to public and private property, noise disturbances and assaults resulting in injuries to partiers, bystanders and police officers,” McLaughlin said.
On Sept. 24, 2010, a riot of more than 400 people erupted on East 14th Avenue and Ferry Street. The party patrol was the first to respond to this incident. When students failed to comply with officers’ orders to disperse and the crowd began gaining intensity, throwing bottles and tearing down signs, tear gas was used to break up the crowd.
While this is an extreme case, it bring awareness to the intensity parties can reach.
Many University of Oregon students have seen or potentially interacted with the party patrol, but many people don’t know when the extra efforts of the patrol began.
“I don’t think anyone really knows,” said David Natt, a Eugene police officer involved with the party patrol for the last 10 years.
The party patrol has been around for at least a decade and it has evolved over the years to respond to specific behaviors, according to Natt and McLaughlin. More officers have been hired to focus on alcohol-related issues in certain campus areas that, based on historical data, have had issues in the past.
Based on past editions of The Register-Guard, the late 1980s were when police and UO students began to see a change in the party scene and police began to crack down.
In an article published on Oct. 15, 1989, UO graduate and former fraternity president Eric Ochs said, “There’s no doubt that the atmosphere is changing for the worse.” This statement was in regard to a riot the past May where police and students engaged in an altercation.
When the party patrol officially began is unknown, but the efforts began a little over two decades ago. The article presents crimes rates from 1988 to 1989 showing liquor violations shooting from 46 to 113, a 146 percent rise. Disorderly conduct numbers went from 27 to 29, a 44 percent increase.
Have the efforts since then helped? According to Natt, it isn’t as easy as saying the party patrol has decreased crime rates since there are many other factors that could play into those numbers.
The party patrol is just one aspect of a focused effort to decrease alcohol-related crimes around the UO.
“The party patrol isn’t a solution,” Natt said. “It is just a response effort.”