 "Photo: Kelly Calligan, Assistant Photo Editor")
 "Photo: Daniel Sakow, Staff Photographer")
The 2005 College Area Party Plan administered a substantial message to underage drinkers and those breaking the rules of the road. Last month, of the 198 total incidents that took place in a designated weekend, police issued 63 minors in possession and 49 traffic citations, according to data compiled from the event.
CAPP, which began in 2002, is a law enforcement operation that intends to decrease community disruption in the San Diego State area in order to increase the quality of life. The operation implements its program at the beginning of each semester, with greater emphasis at the onset of the school year.
This semester, it was carried out Sept. 8 and 9 off of Montezuma Road to combat the issue of community disturbance through parties, noise and alcohol-related violations.
The "three-team effort," comprised of several resources including proactive, reactive and undercover officers, resulted in an 80 percent reduction in noise complaints this year, according to the city of San Diego memorandum.
While statistics for the program are available, its overall performance is difficult to determine. "I don't think anyone has done a careful evaluation of the CAPP program yet," said James Lange, coordinator of alcohol and other drug initiatives at SDSU. "While its effectiveness seems intuitive and anecdotally I have heard of instances of it helping, I can't say for sure it has reduced problems."
Freshman Michael Hawkins said the program is effective for students because it scares people. He said, however, that it's not necessarily an issue for him because he parties at his friends' houses by SDSU and they get along well with their neighbors.
San Diego Police Officer Richard Fox explains the weekend process that resulted in 156 arrests. The first team - uniformed officers on foot or bicycles - went out to see what was happening, Fox said. They spotted the MIPs - or any other types of violations - and passed them to the reactive team, which responded to disturbances, he said. There was no long delay associated with that level of radio call because of the increased enforcement, which, he said is different from a normal night. The final team was made up of "plain-clothed, unmarked officers," he said.
Also participating in the event were University Police, Department of Alcohol Beverage Control, California Highway Patrol and SDPD, according to the memorandum.
To date, the citizens who've called in to complain about disturbances have gone from 81 in 2002 to 16 this year. This shows the same neighborhoods are more courteous and are abiding by the laws, Fox said. Of those 16, most of them were minor calls, he said.
Traffic cites were actually higher this year at 49 - from 48 in 2002 - but it is a much lower number than it was in 2003, with 265 traffic cites. That's just indicative of how many units we have, he said.
"People are going to drink and drive - that's just the way it is. I don't know how to solve that problem," Fox said.
Only four party "hosts" were arrested at the operation, which was down from 49 since the program's implementation. Fox said this was because officers would arrive at the scene and it would just be people talking with no music, which is not a crime.
Other incidents that took place the same weekend were driving under the influence arrests, vehicles being impounded, urinating in public and misdemeanor arrests, according to the data.
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