TCU off-campus party policy makes sense
There are inconveniences one might expect when living close to a university — especially one with a football team that began the season ranked No. 1.
At least six Saturdays a year, the neighborhood streets swell with cars, and sidewalks are filled with sometimes rowdy football fans and alums.
Stadium noise — cheers, applause and the sound of a train whistle when the home team scores — is unavoidable. That’s the price of living near Texas Christian University’s beautiful campus.
And on game days and every other, it’s very likely that area residents will count students among their neighbors.
Welcoming student renters to the quaint communities that surround TCU is just one way for local homeowners to show they are good neighbors. But that’s a two-way street. And based on the frequency of large off-campus parties that have demanded police intervention this semester, traffic is going only one way.
The problem has become so big, the Fort Worth Police Department has had to change its policy: No more friendly warnings for unruly off-campus partiers. From now on, when they receive complaints the police will take action, including tickets and arrests.
Longtime residents, especially those who lived in the TCU area before the school began expanding its footprint, can be too quick to call police when a friendly reminder from a concerned neighbor might be a better solution. Homeowners should begin with a little neighborhood diplomacy.
But parties this year seem to be worse than in years past. Littering, urinating in yards and even mechanical bulls in back yards have been reported.
To be fair, when confronted by police TCU students typically comply with orders to quiet down.
The problem is, as Fort Worth Police Capt. Donald Hanlon told the Star-Telegram’s Ryan Osborne, “they’re making police have to go out and issue these warnings. We don’t want them to get to that place in the first place.”
On one weekend night last month, party complaints occupied all 15 patrol units in the west division, preventing officers from patrolling other parts of the beat. Policing parties should not be dominating officers’ time.
These parties are also fraying the relationship between TCU and the surrounding area.
Students shouldn’t be punished for having a little fun. But they should remember that TCU’s campus doesn’t extend into the surrounding neighborhoods.
For both TCU-area residents and police, anything the university can do to reinforce that principle would be greatly appreciated.
This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 5:31 PM with the headline "TCU off-campus party policy makes sense."