Busts center on Church St.

Partying in a residential neighborhood puts you at a higher risk of getting caught with alcohol.

More than half of August and September alcohol citations went to drinkers in the Northside neighborhood, primarily around Church Street, police data indicates.

Chapel Hill Police Lt. Jeff Clark said that area is not being specifically targeted, but increased alcohol enforcement this year has resulted in more citations in areas where long-term residents tend to call and complain about their student neighbors.

Of the 181 alcohol-related citations, about 101, or 56 percent, have come from the Northside area, police data shows.

For comparison, there have been 23 violations on Franklin Street, 24 on Columbia Street and Cameron Avenue and seven around Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, according to police data.

Chapel Hill Police Lt. Kevin Gunter said the Church Street region receives an unusual number of loud noise complaints.

Estelle Mabry, a resident of Pritchard Avenue and member of the Northside Neighborhood Association, said students often act as though they are oblivious to their neighbors, prompting many to call police for backup.

“It’s incredibly inconsiderate, and I’ll tell you what my solution to it is,” she said. “I don’t want to call the police.

“I want to wake your mother up at 2:30 in the morning.”

Clark said the noise complaints from permanent residents living alongside students lead to police involvement.

“The officers respond, and then they find there is a party that is out of control, sometimes with underage occupants, and the charges will stem from that,” he said.

Tyler Gilmore, a student living off Church Street on Carver Street, said he sees at least one or two police cars on his nightly walk home.

“I see police cars pretty much all day every day but especially after dark,” Gilmore said.

Clark said bar crowds walking home also attract police attention.

“Sometimes young people will leave with their drinks in their hands, or they will walk back to their apartments or houses which are on Church Street,” he said.

Senior Matt Wohlford, who lives on Ransom Street near West Cameron Avenue, outside of the Northside area, said he doesn’t see police in his neighborhood very often.

“Our street is mostly residential, and so the cops have less reason to go through there because we are the only student-inhabited house in that little vicinity.”

Underage drinking citations given by Chapel Hill police have doubled since last year. From Aug. 1 to Sept. 28, 65 underage drinking citations were issued, more than twice last year’s 29 citations during the same period, according to reports from Chapel Hill Police.

The department cites an increase in reported alcohol poisonings as their reason for strengthening enforcement.

Fifty-one cases of student alcohol poisoning were reported last school year, up from 28 in the 2007-08 school year and three the year before, according to data collected by the Office of the Dean of Students.

To combat overdoses, Chapel Hill police assigned 14 officers to the recently created Alcohol Law Enforcement Response Team, officer Mitch McKinney said.



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