SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Police Department shared it has been receiving complaints about underage drinking and noise at parties right off the University of Utah’s campus.
The noise is something families living in those off-campus neighborhoods say has been a significant disruption to their lives.
“This has been a residential neighborhood all the time, the whole time my in-laws, my wife and I have been here for 47 years and it should maintain that character,” said resident Neil Glad.
According to police, the complaints are focused in the neighborhood around Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“We all want to have a good time and we all want to support our Utes, we just ask that you do it with respect,” police said in video posted to social media.
But residents counter that the parties are nonstop and happen all the time.
“It’s not always on the weekends this is something that happens sometimes in the daytimes... a lot of the times in the evenings, doesn’t start until after ten o’clock,” Glad said.
One neighbor claimed to have called an ambulance for students partying too hard.
“People were literally aspirating and drunk on the lawn and people were stepping over these people and not paying attention to them,” said Jennifer Neal, who lives near the University of Utah.
But now, city police say they have a historic number of police officers serving with the department and can patrol more areas more often.
“What we’ve found and it’s kind of an older model but we fortunately have the staffing to do it, a lot of people won’t ... conduct illegal acts in the presence of uniformed police officers in marked vehicles,” explained Lt. Steve Wooldridge.
With the push to resolve some of the issues neighborhoods near the university are seeing, some say it’s a good first step.
“I hope that they don’t downplay the seriousness and the widespread nature of this," said Glad. "They’ve been having lots of calls because as a community group we’ve been trying to support each other."
Others say extra police action may not be necessary and that having conversations with students living here has worked to calm down parties.
“Bringing in outside forces just to solve a problem that could be solved simply by being friendly isn’t necessarily the way to go,” Neal said.
The Salt Lake City Police Department say if they do get called to a house, the person hosting the party could get a $1000 fine.