The Syracuse Police Department issued 70 tickets in Syracuse University neighborhoods during the past two weekends, in a crackdown prompted by complaints from the area’s permanent residents, Lt. Joseph Cecile said.

Of the 70 citations – 45 issued two weekends ago and 25 issued last weekend – at least 54 were issued to SU or the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students.

Most of the tickets were issued on streets east of the university campus, including Euclid Avenue, Ostrom Avenue, Clarendon Street, Ackerman Avenue, Lancaster Avenue and Comstock Avenue. All 25 of the tickets issued last weekend were to males, according to police reports.

Increased patrols

Tickets were issued by 13 officers two weekends ago and five officers last weekend, according to police reports. This is the greatest number of cars SPD has had patrol streets east of the university this academic year, Cecile said, an increase that began two weeks ago.

During the first two weekends of the school year, SPD usually sends two cars with two officers in each to the neighborhoods east of campus. On Fridays and Saturdays after that, there is one car on patrol in those areas.

‘This year, activity was just so high that we had to include more patrols,’ Cecile said. ‘It doesn’t normally carry on into the third weekend, and definitely not into the fourth.’

SPD plans to keep the number of officers high for this weekend, but then will re-evaluate every Monday and Tuesday for subsequent weekends, Cecile said.

The tickets given out two weekends ago were for possession of an open container of alcohol, hosting a nuisance party and sound reproduction, according to police reports. One student was arrested for open container possession, harassment in the second degree and resisting arrest.

Tickets issued last weekend were for open container possession and sound reproduction. One student was issued a ticket for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and another was arrested for DWI.

The tickets require court appearance, and consequences can range from dismissal with no charge to a fine of up to $500, Cecile said. The university also takes judicial action.

Matthew Cripps, a sophomore environmental science major in ESF, was walking on the 100 block of Clarendon Avenue Friday night with an open Corona bottle in his hand, he said. He was given a ticket for open container possession at 100 Clarendon at 12:35 a.m., according to a police report.

Cripps said he recognizes that there are permanent residents living in the neighborhood, but that a spike in issuing tickets for these types of violations doesn’t solve any problems.

‘It’s kind of ridiculous. It’s a college environment. (SPD) should be more focusing on kids driving rather than walking from one party to the next,’ Cripps said. ‘I think open container in a college environment is the lesser of two evils, compared to something they could be catching people for.’

Resident opposition

Harry Lewis, secretary of the South East University Neighborhood Association, has lived in the college environment for 49 years. He said it’s typical for problems to occur around this time of year.

‘It peaks, of course, in early autumn and again in spring,’ he said. ‘It’s a cyclic-type problem, and it happens every year.’

The association was created 36 years ago and is composed of permanent residents of 1,200 homes in the area southeast of the university. Lewis served as its president for six years and has lived on Lancaster Avenue for almost half a century.

He remembers fighting the idea to build the Carrier Dome on campus, and eight years ago when the group struck down Wegmans’ plan to build a store in the neighborhood.

‘We are the permanent residents in the area,’ Lewis said. ‘And many of us have babies and small children, so we attempt to keep the area as livable as possible. When noise starts getting out of hand, we try to have that eliminated.’

But he said the students are learning. Cecile of SPD agreed, and said the problem lies in the fact that new students move in and out of the area every year.

New beginnings

‘Each year, we have a whole new group. Each year, they have to be educated and issued tickets,’ Cecile said. ‘As the year progresses, you do see it quiet down. Students see the homeowners and learn that they have jobs they have to be up early for, and children who can’t be disrupted after midnight.’

SPD had tried to use education to help prevent students causing problems in the neighborhood by explaining that as students, they’re living in a mixed neighborhood, Cecile said. Officers gave out warnings on first offense for these types of misdemeanors.

But when SPD recognized two years ago that it wasn’t working, it turned to a stricter policy. The warning concept was eliminated, and tickets are given out on first offense.

‘In many cases, the ticket isn’t a hot button for the students,’ Cecile said. ‘The students aren’t too concerned about the first strike, but they’re more concerned about the second or third.’

Student concern

Sheldon Thomas, a junior computer science major, said there’s too much concern being shown to such a minor offense. He received a ticket Saturday night for open container possession, after he set down a half-empty bottle of Keystone beer on Comstock Avenue, he said.

An SPD officer drove alongside him in the parking lane of Comstock, and when Thomas put down his beer, the officer driving the car jumped out and issued him a ticket, Thomas said.

‘It’s just so routine for them, it’s like a ticket machine,’ Thomas said. ‘I wasn’t harming anybody. A fast-food arrest is what it was.’

Thomas said he thinks the spike in patrols is a tactic to make money from students who can afford to pay the tickets.

‘I grew up in a college town in Pennsylvania,’ Thomas said. ‘And I think this is an overstatement of power in a university town. There has to be an alternate form of discussion and enforcing the rules.’

shmelike@syr.edu

Published on October 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm