In early September, the Milwaukee Police Department was summoned to break up disturbances from partiers near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Many of those attending were students.

“Police involvement has been related to complaints by neighbors about noise nuisance,” said Amy Watson, community relations coordinator at UWM.

In early September, there had been numerous calls to MPD about disturbances to residents in a two-block radius of the campus. Watson said that the police were called and came to issue citations for noise nuisance and possibly underage drinking, depending on the party.

“It’s not at all unusual,” Watson said. “We do have police come to bust parties quite a bit. We (hire and pay) some Milwaukee police officers overtime at the beginning of the year when there’s more activity than usual.”

Students have noticed the increased police involvement as well.

“There was one street that was in the paper,” said Kara Krause, a freshman at UWM. “The cops came and gave out tickets.”

While it is possible the recent crackdowns serve mostly as a precaution at the beginning of the school year, it seems probable that stricter policies may be implemented and carried out past the fall.

The potential crackdown is not only an issue at UWM. Capt. Russell Shaw, associate director for the Department of Public Safety, agrees that there has been an unusually high amount of activity near campus on weekends this year.

“I think from previous years there are definitely more (parties) and it comes from just having more students on campus,” Shaw said. “We have generally been very tolerant, and if a party is getting too big we’ll just knock on the door of the tenants and give out warnings.”

However, the increase in the number of parties and people attending could lead to disturbances and police intervention.

“They keep getting bigger and more out of control every weekend,” Shaw said. “We might have to have MPD come in.

“When the parties get so out of control you have people from outside the university coming in, and there have been instances of theft and intoxicated people walking home in the dark.”

Students have also observed that campus parties are increasing and more out of control.

Freshman Nickie Lund has noticed changes regarding police involvement at parties.

“Especially this last weekend, a couple of my friends have been at parties where they said MPD intervened,” Lund said. “Luckily, they got off without fines but they saw some who weren’t as fortunate.”

Shaw maintained the importance for students to remember that the motivations of the police are in the students’ best interests.

“Our main concern is for the safety of our students,” Shaw said.