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Background

In many college towns there is a difference in lifestyle among community residents and university students. In their leisure time, community residents may seek family-friendly fun and university students may opt for loud music at house parties. The latter can often result in inappropriate, disruptive behavior. Such was the case in the Town of Durham, NH, where increased off-campus housing options meant greater interaction between the town and University of New Hampshire (UNH) students. The Durham Police Department recognized the challenges that accompanied this arrangement and sought to implement a strategy that would encourage students to develop a meaningful and respectful relationship with their community and neighbors.

UNH lies within Durham, where the student population is greater than the population of the entire town. As is the case in most college towns, local law enforcement is often called to respond to off-campus student-involved incidents including drinking in public, excessive noise complaints, driving under the influence (DUI), and other common problems facing that demographic. Durham police officers respond to the calls, and when appropriate, try to offer guidance and deterrence to encourage students to cease undesirable behavior and consider the long-term consequences of their actions.

To address this problem, Durham Police received assistance from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) National Training and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) under the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) TTA program. The assistance focused on analyzing current policing efforts, identifying gaps, and recommending physical improvements and policy changes to prevent future criminal activity.

Analyzing the Situation

To help better understand and analyze the problem, BJA designated the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) to provide technical assistance to the Durham Police Department. VCPI took a community approach to the problem, ensuring it involved all affected stakeholders along the way, including members of the Durham Police, business leaders, students, and other residents. To do this, VCPI:

1. Worked with Durham Police and other identified community stakeholders to research and learn the full scope of the current situation in Durham;
2. Researched existing programs, standard operating procedures, staffing, and other pre-existing efforts;
3. Conducted a 3-day site visit in Durham that included meetings with the stakeholders about their perceptions of crime and disorder problems, and potential desired outcomes;
4. Analyzed all information which was gathered through the research and onsite visit, and developed an action plan.

Improving the Welfare for Local Residents

During its research, VCPI noticed that Durham suffers from what they came to refer to as “the Groundhog Day syndrome,” meaning that every year, commencing with the start of the academic calendar in September, UNH and the town must retrain students and teach them which behaviors will not be tolerated and may result in arrest. Although the Durham Police Department is committed to addressing crime and disorder problems in Durham and has taken steps on its own to do so—this is reflected in an 18 percent drop in crime between 2012 and 2013—VCPI identified several additional opportunities for improvement.

1. Improve Exchange of Information Finding: An arrest report could be furnished to the UNH Police by the Durham Police on a daily basis. The UNH Police would then have the ability to cross reference the names on the arrest report with the student roster. When a match is discovered, the UNH could take appropriate disciplinary action against the offending student.
2. Reduce Number of Tenants in Rental Properties in Residential Neighborhoods: Many localities, Durham included, have difficulty enforcing an ordinance which states that only a certain number of unrelated people may reside in a single residence. Implementing a permit parking system is a practical, yet creative tool that many localities have used to successfully handle the issue of too many unrelated people residing within a single residence.
3. Develop an Enhanced Partnership between the Town and UNH: UNH and the town both have a vested interest in ensuring off-campus students are upstanding members of the community. An enhanced and active partnership between the Durham Police Department and UNH could open the dialogue and ensure students’ misconduct is adequately addressed. This includes aligning UNH’s and the Durham Police Department’s mission and values statements for students, then jointly working with the student government in an effort to instill a better sense of community, citizenship, and mutual accountability. 
4. Establish a Formal Team in Durham to Address Quality of Life Issues: While the Durham Police designated an officer to act as a liaison to the community, it is unrealistic to expect the Problem Oriented Police (POP) Officer to singlehandedly resolve all issues—it should be a team. The goal of this team should be compliance, not enforcement, and it should meet regularly to discuss problem locations that are identified by calls for service, citizen groups, or town employees.

The Durham Police started implementing these measures this fall and continues to work with all community stakeholders to obtain buy-in, understanding, and acceptance. This includes meetings with local business leaders and politicians, university officials, and even students themselves. Working with the local community, VCPI utilized CPTED methodologies to identify and analyze the crime areas surrounding off-campus student housing. The strategies developed and recommended were consistent with CPTED recommendations that focus on environmental, policy, and procedural changes. The goal of these efforts is to create an ongoing, repeatable model and open dialogue to prevent this groundhog syndrome from happening every four years. Doing this will help open the door to a better and more resilient community.

If your community is in need of similar assistance or if you know of a community that would benefit from these types of policing strategies, please contact BJA NTTAC at BJANTTAC@ojp.usdoj.gov.

To submit the work of your organization or jurisdiction for consideration to be featured in a future BJA NTTAC TTA Spotlight, please email BJANTTAC@ojp.usdoj.gov.