The Metropolitan Police Department warned a number of students living off-campus that their houses are on a list of residences to monitor closely and threatened them with arrest in the event of future complaints.
Many of these students expressed surprise at their inclusion, claiming that their homes are on the list because of the behavior of previous residents.
One student claimed that MPD officers visited her home Saturday night, one night after a supposed party at her home. This party, she said, had a dozen people at most, with the only music being played from laptop speakers that were barely audible inside the home. People who were present at the party confirmed that it had broken up by midnight.
Despite this, she said, 2nd District Commander Andy Solberg and other officers warned them that, not only had the girls provoked complaints, but that their house had been designated a “problem house” by MPD, and that all residents on the house lease would be arrested on the spot if any further complaints occurred.
The student wished to remain anonymous in light of ongoing disciplinary action regarding the weekend events.
Officer Tom Magruder of the 2nd Disctrict confirmed that MPD keeps a list of “problem houses” due to the repeated complaints about noise and disturbances and that residents of such houses would be arrested after the next such complaint.
While no one at the MPD knew of the list’s origin, Raymond Danielli, the Assistant Director of Off-Campus Student Life, said that the list was created by the Burleith Citizens Association.
But Ed Solomon, Chairman of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and board member of BCA, was hesitant to associate the BCA with the MPD list.
“A list of complaints which made up a group of houses, places where parties are,” he said. “If you’re not as familiar with the houses, we know that many of the same places year after year, then you have new places that have parties as well. The issue is very severe and getting out of hand.”
Brandon Evans (COL ’08), another tenant of a “problem house,” was not aware of any list. However, he was not surprised to hear that his home was one of those listed on MPD’s list.
“I think our house has been fine, but I know that the residents that subletted our house this summer were known to be really rowdy.”
