A "Loud Party Patrol" formed by the Tempe Police Department hit the street Friday to seek out and control out-of-hand gatherings.
Over the weekend, eight officers and one supervisor worked from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. only responding to loud party calls.
The patrol was formed because the department needed more resources to deal with the rowdy first two weeks of school, said Jeff Lane, department public relations officer.
"I think it went really well," Lane said. "We didn't have to cite that many people because most of the parties shut down after the initial visit."
Police consider a party to be consisting of five or more people.
Thirty-one first-response notices were issued as warnings, and offenders were then given pamphlets and information about the party patrol.
There were 50 calls answered by the patrol; more than 100 people attended most of the parties investigated.
Most of the gatherings were at single-family homes and many were at rentals. Less than a quarter were at apartment complexes.
Many complaints came from residents in relation to parking violations by individuals attending the different parties. An effective method used by officers to shut down the party was to write parking citations.
In total, 51 parking violations were issued throughout the weekend.
Patrol officers on duty said the calls for service were very manageable, since they were strictly concentrating on loud parties and not other calls.
The same number of officers will be on detail Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.
Architecture freshman Rodrigo Reyes attended several parties this weekend, many of which were small and avoided being broken up. He said he didn't think the number of large parties would be cut down because of the patrol.
"If a party gets broken up, it will just end up somewhere else," he said.
Tori Griffith, an undecided freshman attended two parties that were broken up this weekend and had the same opinion.
"It won't make a difference," she said. "There are usually three or four parties going on in a night, and if one gets broken up, people will just go to the next."
Lane added they aren't trying to discourage parties, but to inform people to keep their parties under control.
Lane recommends that people contact their neighbors if they are planning a party.
"Most people forget about the people behind them in the alley or across the street," he said. "If you can see your neighbor from your yard, they will be able to hear if you have loud music at your house, and people should notify them."
Lane said they would continue the program on long weekends and holidays if it proves to be a continued success this weekend.
Reach the reporter at christina.viloria@asu.edu.
