Students attending San Diego State University (SDSU), will be starting the fall semester on Monday, Aug. 22. That means summertime is ending and move-in time will be the week of the 16th.

College Area residents know all too well that parties will soon likely follow. In fact, the upcoming Labor Day holiday is traditionally the first major party weekend on the academic calendar.

This school year, residents hope things will be sane and safe.

They point to the tragic death of recent Grossmont High School graduate 18-year-old Kevin Burton following a party at a College Area rental house in June in the 4800 block of Art Street. Burton was fatally shot a short distance away from the late night party he and several other individuals had just left.

One concerned resident said, “It never should have happened!” For 20 years, they have lived in the block where the party took place. While this source wants to remain anonymous, they were willing to share about that night and about the experience living near so many mini-dorms, if it can help make things better in the future. They believe, “This tragedy could have been prevented if the police had shown up.” In fact, this neighbor called the non-emergency police line at 10:30 p.m. on June 24 to report the noisy party, with kids and cars everywhere. This neighbor also stated, “I waited on hold for 34 minutes and then they told me they probably wouldn’t be able to come out to check on it.”

A San Diego Police Department (SDPD), press release dated June 25 acknowledged the Communications Center received a report hours later, at approximately 1:45 a.m., about a male with a gunshot wound. A second bullet reportedly went into one of the nearby apartments, but no one was injured. Now, Art Street residents and the whole community are left wondering what the culpability of the tenants and property owner is and whether Burton would still be alive if the police had shown up earlier in the evening.

Community members have been dealing with problematic rental properties in College Area neighborhoods for years on end. As an example, one such problem property is a student mini-dorm where parties occurred on 18 separate occasions during the previous 2021-2022 school year. The student mini-dorm is directly behind the home where the anonymous source and their family reside. While many of the calls for service did not receive a timely response, the house ultimately got CAPPed by the SDPD (will remain CAPPed until Sept. 18). Despite being CAPPed, the parties and noise violations continued to occur, resulting in additional Administrative Citations.

SDPD at lowest available staffing levels since 2006

According to Jared Wilson, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association, “We are at the lowest available staffing levels since 2006; under 1,600 sworn full-duty officers of all ranks.” He noted, the SDPD first started keeping staffing records in 2006. To put things in perspective, Wilson stated that, “SDPD used to employ 70 community service officers and investigative aides to assist with operations. In 2010, most of these positions were cut from the budget and have not been replaced.” Over the last decade more positions have been cut, including bike teams, a DUI squad, the Mission Bay boat unit, and several proactive crime suppressions teams, including the so-called “C- Squad” that patrolled the College Area and helped with party calls.

Wilson, who recently attended community meetings in the College Area and Talmadge, provided the following statement about the current, critical staffing issue, “SDPD patrol divisions throughout the city meet minimum staffing levels less than half of all shifts.” With particular regard to the College Area, he stated, “Even though it’s two beats (326 is College Avenue to the west and 327 is College Avenue to the east), I believe it [College Area] generally has one officer covering both. This is significantly less than cities like La Mesa and Poway which are similar in size.”

The current staffing shortage as Wilson described, has been forcing the SDPD call center to prioritize calls based on type of crime and potential severity. Wilson acknowledged, “City-wide response times to Priority One calls, are nearly 40 minutes on average.” Priority One calls require immediate response because there is reason to believe a threat to life exists, such as domestic violence in progress, child abuse, and shots fired. Response times, he says, “have skyrocketed over the last several years due to staffing shortage, extra state reporting mandates, a high turnover rate with an inexperienced group of new officers, and a rise in crime.”

It’s these types of incidents and issues that moved City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents the College Area as part of District 9, to initiate an advisory group to help address neighborhood problems in an efficient way.

Elo-Rivera has stated that the goal of the meetings is to create open lines of communication among participants so that collaborative, long-term solutions can be more easily developed to address issues of public safety and quality-of-life in the College Area.

In addition to the Council President and several D9 staff members, the advisory group is comprised of representatives of the Mayor’s office, SDPD, SDSU Police Department (UPD), SDSU Administration, College Area Community Council, a College Area resident, and City departments like Planning, Code Enforcement and Environmental Services, as needed. Jefferey Nguyen, a District 9 policy advisor and community representative for the College Area, stated, “Our office likes to think of it as a quarterly check-in to share concerns at the meeting and work to collectively address them.” The group last met on Aug. 4, via Zoom (see related photo).

Party hosts asked to act responsibly, be considerate of their neighbors

On the agenda that day was a discussion about the Community Assisted Party Program, a city-wide effort commonly referred to as CAPP.

A partnership between the police department and residents, the goal of the program is to encourage party hosts to act responsibly and to be considerate of their neighbors. If a neighborhood party becomes too disruptive (e.g., unreasonable noise, crowds, late hours, long duration, public intoxication, illegal parking, fighting, and vandalism), residents can report the party while in progress to police using the non-emergency line by calling (619) 531-2000. An emergency which requires immediate attention (police, fire, ambulance), should be reported by calling 9-1-1.

Multiple and/or chronic complaints concerning the same party location are a drain on limited police resources. When necessary, CAPP is a tool officers can use to impose sanctions and monitor homes which continue to have parties that meet criteria for nuisance and other violations. Upon a first response, the house is in essence flagged, and a written administrative citation is given as a warning. Currently, if a second response citation is issued within 30 days, the house is “CAPPed” and each person on the lease is fined $1,000. If a third citation is given to a CAPPed house within a year, each tenant is again fined $1,000 and the property owner is also fined $1,000.

During the recent advisory group meeting, SDPD Chief David Nisleit announced that a major change to the CAPP Program had been approved with the aim of reducing party-related problems over a longer period of time. It’s a policy move that was encouraged by the College Area Community Council (CACC), a longstanding neighborhood coalition which also involves the SDSU administration and associated students, SDPD and UPD, as well as the local Business Improvement District, and residents who represent each of six defined College Area neighborhoods. Jim Jennings, the Chair of the CACC, praises Chief Nisleit and the D9 group for their leadership, stating, “In working with District 9 and the SDPD, this approval will allow the CAPP first response times to be extended from 30 days to 60 days, which is an incredible win for the College Area.”

In addition to CAPP, Captain Julie Epperson from the SDPD Eastern Division (which serves the College Area), said during the D9 meeting that she is looking for additional staffing for the first three back-to-school weekends. Starting Aug. 19, staff would be dedicated to the College Area and would not be responding to other calls unless there is an emergency. Sept. 3 has not yet been confirmed for extra coverage, due to competition for holiday staffing resources.

While SDPD uses CAPP and extra coverage to try to curb party-related problems in the neighborhoods adjacent to SDSU, the university will employ it’s own plans and protocols to address problem parties. In a prepared statement, UPD wants local residents to know, “San Diego State University is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our campus community.” The statement further acknowledges, “During new student orientation, UPD presents to all incoming students, including transfer students, about the importance of being a good neighbor.”

SDSU makes it’s expectation clear in at least two Student Code of Conduct policies which relates to individual student behaviors in the following settings: 1) Surrounding neighborhoods as related to behaviors concerning alcohol and other drugs, and 2) Surrounding neighborhoods, as related to noise, when SDSU students in off-campus residences have received prior directives from SDSU administrators or public safety officers to stop noise disruptions to the community and did not comply with that directive.”

This Labor Day weekend and throughout the new school year, the community wants to see positive results from these agency programs, collaborations, and enhanced coordination. They plan to review data in the coming weeks and months to see if this school year is ultimately safer.

Residents will want to know if UPD/SDSU were able to ensure their students, who choose to live off-campus in the College Area community, are good neighbors.

They will also want to verify if the City was able to maintain adequate SDPD coverage in the College Area to prevent public safety problems, like out-of-control student parties, before they potentially turn tragic.

Refer to these resources for more information:

College Area Community Council (CACC) collegearea.org

District 9 sandiego.gov/citycouncil/cd9 (619) 236-6699

SDPD non-emergency phone number (619) 531-2000

Get It Done San Diego www.sandiego.gov/get-it-done

– Karen Austin is a College Area resident and new member of the College Area Community Council, not the Planning Board.

Photo courtesy of SDSU