Party,
Meet Pooper.

History of APD Party Patrol

The Party Patrol is a component of APD's underage drinking program. It was started back in September of 2001 through the efforts of Capt. Sonny Leeper of the Northeast Area Command and City Councilman Brad winter. The Department recognized a need for improved enforcement efforts directed at combating underage drinking following the tragic deaths of teens who had attended unsupervised parties. Further research uncovered numerous incidents of disturbances, fights, shootings, sexual assaults and vehicle accidents that were associated with an underage drinking party.

The problem that was found was that the Police Department was often unable to give their full attention to responding to these parties. Since many of these calls begin as some type of noise or minor disturbance call, they are often given a low priority as to when and how the police are dispatched. This could often translate into a 2 or more hour delay before officers even are sent the call. Even then, traditionally only 2 officers were dispatched and they were limited in their enforcement capabilities when confronted with parties having over 100 kids in attendance. At best, warnings were given and the youths dispersed on their own without further incident. It was the worst case scenarios that told us that we needed to come up with a better way to deal with this all too serious problem.