New Beat for Police: Teenage Party Patrol

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has set up an unusual special weekend patrol to crack down on rowdy high school get-togethers in Laguna Hills, where even some teens have been calling for help when their parties get out of control.

“Parties are a whole new thing now with cell phones and pagers,” said Lt. Rex Hatch, who heads the sheriff’s unit that serves under contract as the city’s police department. “What’s happening is that someone throws a party expecting 15 people, but pretty quickly it can grow to 150 or 200.”

Mobile phones allow teens to quickly expand their parties beyond small circles of friends, authorities say. Word of mouth can lure large numbers of friends and party crashers, increasing the potential for trouble.

The department’s antidote: a two-officer weekend party patrol that hunts teenage gatherings in search of loud music, underage drinking, scuffles and other illegal or bothersome youthful activities sometimes associated with such events.

Officials say the program, which began this month and will continue throughout the year if successful, is among the first of its kind in Orange County, although the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for some time has dispatched weekend patrols to quell boisterous gatherings. The Orange County department finances the patrol with money set aside for overtime.

“I think it’s a great way to curtail the outside party crashing that sometimes leads to fights,” Laguna Hills Mayor Joel T. Lautenschleger said. “The Sheriff’s Department can go there and lend support when needed.”

Some teenagers, however, say they are concerned the extra patrol could lead to unfair treatment.

“Students I’ve talked to say they’re already being harassed if they’re walking in groups,” said Brian Biggott, a senior at Laguna Hills High School who represents the student body on the school district’s board of trustees.

He said teenagers report that they are being pulled over by officers or having their parties shut down for no apparent reason. “We can deal with the rules when they are enforced for the right reason,” Biggott said.

Law enforcement officials say the right reason is the proliferation of out-of-control teenage parties in recent years. About 10 times a week, they say, the Sheriff’s Department gets calls from neighbors complaining about loud music or crowds of people spilling over from a nearby party. About 10% of the calls have been from the hosts themselves asking police to help disperse crowds, Hatch said.

The patrol responds to disturbance complaints but also relies on tips from school officials, parents and fliers distributed in school hallways publicizing events, Hatch said.

Even Biggott admits that small weekend parties can grow out of control. “There’s a couple each weekend,” he said. “Often, they’re free-for-alls.”

Sgt. Kelsey Lovelady, who has accompanied deputies on the patrols, said their aim is to prevent small problems from becoming larger. Recently, for instance, the patrol was alerted to an unsupervised party and stopped in to talk with the teens. “The parents were gone, so we broke it up before it got out of hand,” Lovelady said. “That alone makes it successful.”

Heightening parents’ awareness is another goal of the new patrol. One weekend, deputies responding to a call found unsupervised minors drinking alcohol and taking drugs. “We called the parents, and they responded to see what was going on,” Lovelady said. “It was a real eye-opener for them.”

Biggott said part of the problem is that some parents condone minors drinking alcohol in their homes. “They have the attitude that ‘It’s OK as long as you don’t drive,’ which is unfortunate,” the student said.

The new patrol will decrease the response time to disturbance calls and provide more time to talk to revelers, Hatch said. “Deputies will hopefully be able to answer questions and talk to people about the best way to throw a party,” he said.

Besides the problem of drunk driving, officials say they are concerned about fights and date rape. Lovelady said the concerns are being taken so seriously that a special town meeting is being considered to talk with parents and teens.

“It’s just time to put a stop to it,” Lovelady said.