Police to target parties in fight against alcohol

State Liquor Control Engorcement agents and University Police will expand their focus beyond just restaurants and bars. Spurred by a recent rash of alcohol-related assaults, University and state police officials plan to step up their fight against underage drinking -- putting a new emphasis on patrolling rowdy private parties. In a recent forum on the issue, University Police and the state Liquor Control Enforcement Bureau emphasized plans to attack the problem from many angles, including citing restaurants and bars that sell to minors, arresting students who break liquor laws or shutting down campus parties if they violate the law. Police representatives opened the meeting with Penn and Drexel University officials and local bar and restaurant owners as part of efforts to explain everyone's responsibilities clearly and answer any questions about police policy. Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush praised most area liquor license holders for following the law, noting that University Police focuses much of its efforts on combatting underage drinking at parties. "By no means are we saying that restaurants and bartenders are the only concern," she explained. Managing Director of Public Safety Tom Seamon added that University Police "will be stepping up our enforcement, and much of that will be directed to private parties." The LCE will continue to play an important role in the effort by "intervening" in parties that spill out into the street and "going in and making arrests" at open off-campus parties charging entrance fees, LCE supervisor Gary Kardisco said. The LCE can cite students at such events because parties that spill onto the streets violate the law, he explained. Additionally, houses holding parties that charge admission are no longer legally considered private homes. Kardisco refused to say how often LCE personnel are at Penn, although he acknowledged that "we're on campus a lot" and that his officers "routinely travel through campus." Throughout the meeting, police officials stressed the seriousness of underage drinking and the violence it can cause. Seamon expressed shock at the high level of alcohol-related violence so far this semester. "We don't know if it's the phase of the moon or what, but it's a different flavor this year," he noted. Four violent incidents last weekend were attributed to alcohol, and police now say alcohol-related violence has forced itself to the forefront of their agenda. Most of the owners' questions and complaints revolved around perceptions that police and the LCE crackdown on them while virtually ignoring private parties held by students. "The most frustrating part of the whole thing is that there's minors drinking throughout the campus and the University tolerates it, the LCE tolerates it, everyone tolerates it," Cavanaugh's owner Bill Pawliczeck said in a separate interview. "But as soon as it happens in my business establishment, it's not tolerated." And Mad 4 Mex co-owner Tom Baron complained at the meeting that "Pennsylvania seems to have some of the most obscure laws in the country except for Utah" after Kardisco told him minors cannot legally patronize his business if more than 30 percent of its sales are from alcohol. In choosing to focus on how much students drink instead of whether they drink at all, many at the meeting admitted that stopping underage drinking altogether would be impossible. "I'm not so naive as to think we're going to stop college students from drinking," Kardisco said. "The thing is, what we can do is to tone it down or to have students drink in moderation."