Santa Fe May Charge for Cop Calls to House Parties

Under a proposed ordinance, Santa Fe, New Mexico, could bill homeowners if police officers are called out to loud parties, The New Mexican reported Oct. 15.

Santa Fe's city council is considering the measure now and will vote on it next month. While it is focused on noise control, the ordinance is also intended to address underage drinking.

Police would only send bills for responding when they had to make more than one call to the same party. According to The New Mexican, their invoices would be sent to the “'responsible person' — defined as a the owner, tenant, landlord and/or person who organized the party.” Costs would likely be tied to the number of police personnel involved, and the amount of time that police equipment was committed to the call. Where alcohol or other violations occur, other citations would be given. 

According to Glenn Wieringa of the state Transportation Department's Traffic Safety Bureau, similar ordinances are being considered in other counties in New Mexico, and have already been instituted in other states.

Ventura County, Calif. pioneered the approach five years ago, and a majority of law enforcement officers surveyed there in 2009 said that it curbed teen alcohol parties. Likewise, police in San Diego said that billing homeowners reduced the number of calls they received to home parties near San Diego State University.

Wieringa said that New Mexico's state lawmakers might take action if they saw a large number of cities and counties enacting such measures. “This makes sense to do at the local level first because I think the underage drinking problem is more keenly felt at the local level than at the state level.”

Santa Fe City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez, who sponsored the ordinance, said that the measure would hold property owners responsible as well as people present at a party. “If you have a party house and you are continuing to create an environment where the police constantly show up, you are going to have to pay for that service,” he said. “If you are a renter and you want to have a place to live, you need to make sure that you follow the rules.”

Deputy Police Chief Abram Anaya said that the police department received a lot of calls about loud parties. Numbers are inexact, in part because of the way calls are logged. Some responses to parties are coded as responses to fights or domestic violence.

Each year, Santa Fe police respond to about 130,000 calls. In 2010, they received 225 disorderly conduct calls, of which at least eight were about parties. They handed out citations to 122 minors in possession or under the influence, and to 17 adults for buying alcohol or giving it to minors.