KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — In order to help better curb occurrences of mobile nuisance parties, representatives of the Kalamazoo Department of Safety (KDPS) held their second community input meeting on the subject Monday night.
The meeting series, which began last month, is meant to have two-way dialogue between police officers and the communities where these parties occur. At the previous meeting, Deputy Chief Dave Boysen remarked that these gatherings, sometimes known as “X-Train” parties, have been a growing problem every year since he joined the department.
KDPS cruiser. (Photo by Jeana Gondek).
Area residents have been asking KDPS to do something about these gatherings, which often occur late at night and include instances of violence, vandalism and more.
Community Collaborator for KDPS LaTonya Turner says community input is crucial to finding a collaborative solution.
“We all have the same goal, and that is creating a Kalamazoo that is safer,” Turner said. “In the case of tonight’s town hall, impacted less by the mobile nuisance parties that have been troubling pockets of our city for far too long. At KDPS, we believe the best way to go about this is to make it a work collaboratively with the people that continue to be impacted. That’s why we have been intentional about taking steps to make sure residents play an integral part in developing this plan.”
During the meeting, Director of Public Services James Baker spoke on some suggestions that have been submitted by community members, including improved street lighting and the installation of more speed bumps.
However, more input is needed.
“Speed bumps do impact on-street parking, so we want to understand what that impact will look like to the individual resident level,” Baker said. “We’ll do this by placing a door hanger out that can be utilized to communicate back to us. There will be a phone number and email address, or you can tear off the bottom and submit that back via US Mail, it’ll be a pre-paid postcard.”
Some of the streets being looked at for new speed bumps this year include Williams, Elizabeth, Ada, Clay, Norway, and parts of Woodward, to name a few.
Baker said those installations are a work in progress, and more research will be done to determine where these speed bumps go.
As for street lights, Baker said the placement has been essentially the same for 75 years, featuring upgrades as recent as 2017. The department has been working with Consumer’s Energy to upgrade to LED type lights, according to Baker. He said that more blocks are being looked at, as well as major street corridors.
However, the timeline for this work may take as long as two years, according to Baker.
After updates were provided by Baker, the meeting then turned to a presentation by Deputy Chief Dave Boysen, who provided data collected by the department thus far.
Boysen says part of the data includes figuring out who exactly is participating in these gatherings, as well as where they come from. Based on observed vehicles, through the year 2020, the majority of participants were from the Kalamazoo area, and several of the vehicles were rented from Enterprise Rent-a-Car on Stadium Drive.
Of those participants, the majority were from the Northside area, while others resided in the Edison and West Douglas neighborhoods. Other participants are noted to have been from various areas across the county, or out of the area altogether, according to Boysen.
In regards to data collected this year, there have been two instances of mobile nuisance parties that occurred on March 14 and 18. In those cases, there was a slight uptick in vehicles that had been rented, while the second majority of vehicles were from the Northside area. Other areas included Kalamazoo Township, with at least one coming as far as Chicago.
He then discussed what the three-phase plan for addressing these parties will entail. The department is currently in Phase One, which involves data collection and these virtual town hall meetings.
“A lot of it comes down to better communication amongst residents themselves, and better communications from the residents to Public Safety,” Boysen said. “We really want that two-way dialogue, and that’s really how we are going to solve this, is by working together with the residents in the neighborhood as partners in this.”
Aside from dialogue-driven solutions, Boysen said work with subcommittees is also occurring to discuss possible solutions.
Since there have been no observed X-Train parties since March 18, the department is still in the Phase One data collection. Vehicles that are observed must be seen participating twice before action is taken. Boysen says this is to avoid misidentifying participants.
“The key is, we want to get at least two observations of vehicles involved on two different occasions,” Boysen said. “That way, we know it’s not an innocent person who got caught up and happened to be going the same direction as the party. We want to make sure we observe that vehicle on two different nights in similar activity, so we know it’s probably not an innocent owner.”
Those who are seen participating twice will receive a letter of warning in the mail or in person. The vehicles involved will also be placed on a “hot list” and flagged in case an officer sees them at a future gathering.
Door-to-door canvassing in relevant neighborhoods will also take place. Informational brochures will be distributed, and further information will be communicated through social media and other channels.
“We don’t want to catch anyone by surprise by this, we want to communicate with those involved on what the ordinance is and what the consequences are for that behavior, so hopefully they make better decisions and choose not to participate,” Boysen said. “Or, if they know someone is using their car, they can encourage them not to do so.”
He said delivering warning letters in person would be preferred so officers can speak about the matter on the spot.
After these activities take place, Boysen said Phase 3 will be the enforcement phase, at which time citations and possible arrests will be made. However, Boysen is hoping it won’t come to that.
“Hopefully by the time we get to our operational plan in Phase 3, the word has been out and people know what we’re going to do,” Boysen said. “The whole point is to deter this kind of behavior before we have to do enforcement. But if all of those things fail, we will have to do enforcement. We will take that ‘hot list,’ and those officers will know, if they see a mobile nuisance party, vehicles that have received the warning. We will stop those vehicles and impound them, and it will be the registered owners’ responsibility to pay the towing and storage fees. We will cite the drivers for violation of the mobile nuisance ordinance.”
He added that in comparison to the way the department has previously handled these parties, a targeted vehicle approach may be more effective.
“People don’t want their cars towed, and maybe that will change the behavior,” Boysen said.
There were few public comments, but one caller from the Northside area said she was pleased that the Department was taking these steps.
“I truly appreciate this opportunity,” she said. “I do love my community and I’m open for working with anyone who will assist us with being able to live as decent as everybody else.”
Officials reminded residents that all public comments are helpful and accepted into this process. Anyone who would like to express their thoughts, concerns or questions is encouraged to write a message to hello@kalamazoocity.org.
Meanwhile, a meeting held by the Mobile Nuisance Party Focus Group Subcommittee, created to help further address this issue, will occur this Wednesday, March 24.
View a recording of the Monday meeting at this link.
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