Pizza, police and half-dressed men.
It’s a typical Sunday night for residents of Bobb and McCulloch halls.
Two uniformed University Police officers leaned against a wooden pillar in the McCulloch lounge, waiting for students to fire questions on drinking, fake identification and safety. Dorm residents filtered in and out, snatching pizza slices and breezing past police. Forty-five minutes later, only one person — who didn’t live in Bobb or McCulloch — had approached officers Brian Obremski and Jamie Armstrong. They were just there for a chat.
From appearances at dorm munchies to basketball games, UP’s community policing strategy tries to put officers in a friendlier light.
Obremski, who works the midnight shift with Armstrong, said he mostly deals with “negative matters,” such as drunken students. He hopes events such as the one at McCulloch will show people that police aren’t simply out to ruin their fun.
“We don’t just give speeches,” he said “We do stuff and get to know people in a different way. We’re not just about enforcement.”
But Bobb resident assistant Chirag Patel said many students probably felt too intimidated to ask sensitive questions to the officers, who were invited by the area coordinator.
“People were afraid to set themselves up for trouble,” said Patel, a McCormick senior. “They didn’t want to incriminate themselves.”
One shirtless student at the event talked with the officers about his problems living in a “nuisance” premise on the 900 block of Hamlin Street. Under a city ordinance, an Evanston residence can be labeled a nuisance property if it is cited for two noise violations in six months. Landlords of nuisance premises are fined each time police answer a complaint there.
The student told police he was almost evicted — even though it was the apartment next door that was making noise. He asked what he should have done.
Obremski replied that nonstudent residents “hate students” and that the best the student could do is go to the hearing and state his case.
The student left fed before The Daily could speak with him one on one.
Armstrong said officers always get the same questions, mainly about underage drinking and fake identification.
“It’s no news people have that stuff around here,” she said. “Don’t be stupid about it. Don’t give it to a police officer when you’re drunk as identification.”
Peter Micali arrived at munchies late and missed the officers because of a meeting. The Communication freshman said he might have approached them about safety issues.
“I would feel in that kind of environment,” Micali said, “if it were organized, I wouldn’t feel awkward about asking questions,” he said.
