Brookline police to cut extra patrols at night

The Brookline Police Department this weekend will remove extra late-night patrols that were intended to crack down on supposedly rowdy students because of a noticeable improvement to the situation, according to police. Though he could not provide specific incident statistics for the past week, Brookline police Capt. John O'Leary said there has been a substantial improvement to areas with heavy student concentrations in the past week, compared to the period between Sept. 1 and Oct. 25, when 23 people -- many of whom are Boston University students -- were arrested or put on summons in the town because of public intoxication. "Friday and Saturday nights there will probably still be concentrated units," O'Leary said, "but as far as places like Egmont Street - they will no longer be specifically assigned there." College of Arts and Sciences senior Jesse Kramer, the Student Union city affairs director , and CAS junior and Egmont Street resident Jess Colton rode with Brookline police on patrol to help them view the situation from the cops' perspective last weekend. "My overall opinion was that it went great," O'Leary said. "It was for students to observe police behavior from our eyes as much as they could -- to get out there to see what happens, listen to calls coming in and trying to put themselves in our shoes. We have to deal with these situations as peacefully as we can, and that's what I was hoping -- for them to see where we're coming from." O'Leary said he hopes the removal of extra enforcement will inspire students to continue to act respectfully in resident neighborhoods. "One-hundred percent of students are not going to reign in their behavior," he said. "We're hoping that 70 to 80 percent do, but 10 to 15 percent, for whatever reason, aren't ever going to respect other's rights." Kramer said he was pleased with Saturday's police ride, which lasted from 10:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m., and said he is more understanding of police actions in Brookline. "I was just surprised how reasonable police officers were," he said. "There was only one arrest the entire evening, and it was some drunk 30-year-old professional who had completely cussed out police officers. It changed the way I thought about the entire incident -- to see more of a protective fatherly figure than someone out to get students." Kramer said the idea behind riding with police was to see how they distinguished between students who deserve to be arrested and those who do not seem to be breaking any laws. Colton said she was pleasantly surprised that police did not have to make any stops on Egmont Street -- an area of Brookline typically heavily populated with students. "I wish more students could go on ride-alongs," Colton said. "It was eye-opening how they have to deal with it all night long -- just one party after another." Colton said police stopped at homes hosting parties to give warnings, and if conditions did not improve, they returned later to break them up. "It's very different when you're inside a party -- you're so upset when something gets broken up," she said. "But in the car you can hear parties three blocks down the street, and it's clear why it's a disruption to people." Kramer and Colton said meetings next week between students, permanent residents and area selectmen will hopefully continue to improve relationships and communication among the involved groups. Some students say assertions from the Student Union and Brookline police that relationships between students and police have been mended are not enough to justify the damage that has already been done, and may be contrived to appease angry students. "I think that the police were most likely urged to improve because of all the press recently," said School of Management sophomore Kate Wyman. "It would be unwise for the police to take any action besides that of working toward a more harmonious relationship with students. I wonder if the captain would have been so gracious to take students for a ride if they weren't causing such a commotion." Wyman said police have been acting too aggressively. Her sister, visiting from out of town, was ordered by police to stop smoking a cigarette on her steps even though she was not causing a disturbance, according to Wyman. "I think that police action has actually improved recently," she said. "However, after the way they created a situation for my sister when no police action was necessary, I do not know if I can trust the supposed improvement."

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