KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Kalamazoo city leaders, along with representatives of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS), held their first public input session regarding mobile nuisance parties on Monday night.
During the virtual meeting, officials expressed concerns regarding such parties, while also offering citizens the chance to provide their own feedback and what can be done to address it.
The meeting was meant as an information-gathering session. KDPS Assistant Chief David Boysen said that all input is valuable to drafting a response plan, which will be presented for further review at future meetings on this subject.
Starting at six p.m., Assistant Chief Boysen opened with a statement on the problem at hand.
“I’ve been with public safety for 26 years now almost, and there’s been some version of this problem every summer since I’ve been here,” Boysen said.
He said that the parties began as static gatherings, but with the advent of social media and mobile phones, they have evolved into mobile parties.
“Everybody is connected now, and before you had to pick a location and everyone knew to meet,” Boysen said. “Now, everybody has a phone, everybody is on social media, so you can see where your friends are and join them wherever they are.
He said that the mobile nuisance parties, which are sometimes referred to as the “X-Train,” started to become a problem as early as 2010.
“They would get in lines of many cars, sometimes 50 to 100 cars, meet downtown at the Shell station, and from there, cruise the neighborhoods, and occasionally stop in a residential area, get out, congregate, make noise, exhibition driving, all these things, and they would leave and go to another spot,” Boysen said.
He said this predominately happens in the Douglas, Stewart, North Side, Arcadia, West Side and Downtown areas.
“We know that it’s super frustrating for the residents to have to live with this, because one of the big problems with this type of activity is that it starts very late at night and early into the morning,” Boysen said.
He said these events can sometimes go as late as six a.m. or later.
“When people are trying to get rest in the neighborhoods and sleep, it’s loud, it disturbs everybody, and it’s really a big public safety concern for us because it overwhelms our resources,” Boysen said.
Since then, misdemeanor ordinances have been introduced to curb these gatherings. Other measures include speed bumps installed in target areas, but the problem persists.
After a brief overview of mobile nuisance parties, the floor was opened up for callers to express their concerns, many of which reflected those outlined by KDPS. Aside from noise complaints, there are other concerns about litter, vandalism, reckless driving, and more.
“We don’t want another profiling tactic, we want something that’s really gonna change the dynamic to give us some peace so we can breathe,” caller Stephanie Williams said. “Our kids are getting up over broken bottles and liquor and paraphernalia and drugs and all kinds of stuff. The noise is not even the worst of the worst of it.”
Williams said that these gatherings have also caused physical harm to some of those involved.
“We’ve had young girls that have been thrown from vehicles who have been seriously injured,” Williams said. “Just several months ago, we had a gentleman who was a passenger in his own car who was thrown and sustained a traumatic brain injury. So just from a health perspective, this is no longer just some foolish play or anything. We can’t just sit back and allow this to continue to happen.”
She added that having access to more substance abuse recovery options would be a good way to curb poor decision-making.
After fielding comments for a little over an hour, Assistant Chief Boysen wrapped up the meeting with a statement on future plans.
“We’ll have a draft of an idea put together based on this input, and then we want to present that and see if there’s anything we missed or overlooked,” Boysen said. “We’re always looking for new ideas and plans. They’re never final, they’re always changing. I don’t think it’s set in stone, but we do want to have at least some idea on how to move forward.”
The next session on this subject will be taking place on March 22.
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