AMHERST — Statistics show new community policing and outreach continue to pay dividends in town.
Officials at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the town are reporting a steep drop in police responses and arrests related to noise complaints and off-campus disturbances over the last five years. That, in turn, increases the quality of life for Amherst residents, officials say.
“It’s what we’ve been trying to establish with sector-based policing and community policing,” said Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone. “It’s starting to show its effects.”
Since the beginning of the 2012 school year, the number of noise complaints has dropped by 36 percent, from 748 to 480 in the recently completed school year. While it was not the fewest complaints — that happened in the 2013-2014 school year when police fielded just 470 complaints — a declining trend is evident. The arrests made related to these calls also dropped by 51 percent, from 1,353 to 660, over that same timeframe.
A corresponding rise in community outreach calls has also taken place, more than doubling from the 540 such calls five years ago to 1,163 during the past year.
These statistics were recently presented at a meeting of the Campus and Community Coalition to Reduce High Risk Drinking by Amherst Police Capt. Jennifer Gundersen
“The stats Jen came up with are really encouraging,” Livingstone said.
Select Board member Connie Kruger, who serves as liaison to the coalition, said the numbers illustrate what the partnership between the town and UMass can achieve.
“The town working with the university on a lot more things has been effective at lowering responses,” Kruger said.
Since becoming chief in 2009, Livingstone has emphasized community policing for all officers, including identifying problem houses, apartments and neighborhoods and using personal engagement to educate students about what it’s like to live in Amherst and be good neighbors.
Officers go to specific addresses in sectors and talk to residents about noise complaints and other quality-of-life matters, Livingstone said. These can also include speaking with residents when there is a string of break-ins in a neighborhood or people are having disagreements with their neighbors.
Sector-based policing is an initiative that has been enhanced with Officer William Laramee, whose focus is exclusively on being a neighborhood liaison, and Eric Beal, a civilian neighborhood liaison for UMass. They have collaborated on projects since fall 2015.
Supplementing the police interactions with students living off campus, both before and after incidents occur, is the voluntary party registration program known as Party Smart.
Tony Maroulis, executive director of external relations and university events at UMass, has numbers that prove it has been effective.
For the full year, 333 parties were registered, with police having to make just 34 courtesy calls after getting complaints from neighbors. So long as the party hosts are able to quiet or disperse a party within 20 minutes of getting a call from an Amherst police officer, there won’t be a response to break up a party.
Only one warning and one citation was issued to a registered party between September and May, showing its almost universal success.
“For those of us working with the program, we’re encouraged by the program. It’s been a successful pilot,” Maroulis said, adding that it’s a “a byproduct of cooperation and good thinking with community partners.”
Party Smart also got a much higher level of participation than was envisioned, Kruger said.
The program includes an education component through the Off-Campus Student Services office at the Student Union, which Livingstone said he appreciates.
This education includes a peer-advising talk about expectations and being a responsible host, Maroulis said.
The pilot could be expanded to the summer months and allow fraternity and sorority residences to participate. There is also an intent to step up its marketing.
One of the consequences of the success of the party registration program has been a reduction in fines, with less revenue for the town’s coffers.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said this is not an issue. “It’s a trade-off we’re willing to make,” he said.
Fines are not supposed to be a revenue source but rather to change behavior, Bockelman said. Fixing a noise complaint with a phone call rather than a response in a cruiser is better for the protection and safety of the community.
With freshman orientation beginning, Livingstone said his officers will again be able to talk to students about expectations.
“That’s worked very well,” Livingstone said.
One of the problems that has yet to be addressed is large parties with 1,000 or more college-age people in attendance.
Police have worked with property managers, who have hired private security, and Laramee and Beal have worked on changes to the environmental design of properties, including Hobart Lane and Townehouse Apartments, with improved lighting and fences that restrict access. This will cut down on the bad locations and make sure that places where students gather are safer, police say.
“We’re not trying to tell students they can’t have fun,” Livingstone said. “We want them to enjoy college life but be safe and responsible.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.