Frustrated neighbors want Springfield police, officials to end late-night pop-up parties

The Springfield Police Department has plans to crack down on a series of gatherings across the city residents complain are disrupting the neighborhood peace.

The department said it conducted "proactive details" last weekend in an attempt to break up what Assistant Chief Josh Stuenkel called "pop-up" parties, in which a group of 100 people or more gather in a certain location, usually late at night after local bars close.

Citations were issued during a series of traffic stops, with six weapons being recovered related to the details, leading to seven people being arrested on weapons charges.

Randy Lewis, a retired City Water, Light and Power employee, lives along East Adams Street near Comer Cox Park. He said young people attending the parties frequently make the neighborhood unsafe for themselves and others, citing speeding and property damage.

"Everybody in this area is either retired or homeowners and they're older people," Lewis said. "(The kids) get a running start from Martin Luther King (Drive) down to 11th Street (and) they get up to 60-70 miles per hour. We're afraid someone's going to get hurt at nighttime just like two weeks ago when these kids are flying and turning the curve with 4-5 of them sitting out the car door. That's a death trap waiting to happen.

"They also drive through people's yards. That just bothers people."

More: Man considered "most knowledgeable person in Springfield" dies

Stuenkel said that groups park at a certain area – whether that be a parking lot or along a street – and block the area for the gathering. Trying to address it can be difficult, as the events take place all over the city and when one is broken up, the group moves to another area to start up again.

"We've seen them in parks, parking lots of businesses, just about anywhere," Stuenkel said. "(Last) weekend, we saw it all over – we saw it on the north end, the east end (and) the west side. It becomes a moving, mobile problem when we uproot them from one spot."

Stuenkel said the situations that could arise from a gathering in the middle of the night with little supervision and intoxicated people could lead to fights and in some cases, gunfire. People in affected communities, such as Lewis, have told Springfield police and community leaders that the gatherings are a nuisance, disrupting life in these areas at nighttime.

"When they pull up and shut down a block in front of someone's house at 3 a.m., they're not quiet," Stuenkel said. "There's loud music (and) noises, so that is a nuisance to that neighborhood where it happens to occur at."

Comer Cox Park just outside downtown along Adams Street, Capitol Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is one of the frequent gathering spots. Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory, whose district includes the park, said the gatherings have been a part of life in the neighborhood since he was a child.

"Where the problem comes in is (that) you can't disturb others," Gregory said. "That's really the cusp of it, that these things are getting so big that they are disturbing others, jamming up traffic and there's always some type of problem that come from it. The community just wants them to stop."

Ward 5 Alderwoman Lakeisha Purchase said that the gatherings are common in her area at the Qik-N-EZ gas station/convenience store along North Grand Avenue East, in addition to an old Shop n' Save parking lot now owned by Memorial Health and the MedicsFirst ambulance company.

She said that while they have the parking lot under control, much like in Gregory's district, they can't control the large groups forever.

"Last summer, they bum-rushed (the) store, stole all the liquor, potato chips (and) candy," Purchase said. "What were the employees supposed to do? They can't say, 'Hey, put that back!' There are no rules when you get together in settings like that. There are teenagers -- people who are underage -- so there's no supervision going on. Whereas, if you go to a professional establishment, you and I both know that there will be an issue with them getting in the door."

Purchase said that younger people in her ward have told her about the lack of safe places to hang out. One place -- the TK1Lounge at the Motel 6 Springfield -- was closed down because of issues the hotel had with fire marshals and Public Works inspectors.

Purchase said that location was supposed to be used as a safe place for teenagers to hang out after prom as a way to deter the kinds of gatherings that could turn violent.

"They were going to have a big party there this past weekend, but because it was shut down, there was nowhere else to go," Purchase said."The kids took it upon themselves to find somewhere to go and congregate."

Ward 1 Alderman Chuck Redpath said that similar gatherings take place on occasion in his southeast side district but there are not many places where the parties can metastasize. For instance, he said that one party near Lake Springfield was shut down as quickly as it began due to the lake's centralized nature.

"They like to have these parties where they can have easy access and easy escape routes," Redpath said. "At the lake, there's no easy escape routes. They tried to hold one on the Lindsay Bridge, but they were surrounded in a matter of minutes."

For Ward 6 Alderwoman Kristin DiCenso, Ward 7 Alderman Joe McMenamin and Ward 10 Alderman Ralph Hanauer, the gatherings aren't an urgent issue within their districts. However, all said the city needs to be on top of them. McMenamin added that they create problems no matter where they occur.

"They're intolerable," McMenamin said. "They create significant problems (and) they can result in serious bodily injury and aggravated assaults. In the past, we've had problems with these 'pop-up' parties being announced through social media and invitations went out to 'outsiders' that come into our city from Decatur and elsewhere.

"That is also intolerable because they create danger, disrespect for property and significant potential (for) bodily injury through the use of firearms and fights breaking out."

DiCenso said that the city should be keeping tabs on social media in order to nip whatever kind of events they try to hold in the bud before it starts.

"The key to this is tracking it," DiCenso said. "This all originates on social media, it tells everyone where to meet and where they're going to travel throughout the city. I think we need to do a better job of monitoring social media to see where these parties stop so we can cut it off before they start."

Hanauer said that one way to deter people would be for the patrols to monitor potential DUI incidents as part of their enforcement of city ordinances.

"We need to do something," Hanauer said. "We need to enforce all the laws we have. I know they'll be on it."

For SPD's part, Stuenkel said officers will continue to issue citations and make sure laws and park hours are enforced.

More: Property for new east-side firehouse purchased by city

Lewis, the Comer Cox neighbor, suggested the city find a way to get out ahead of those on social media promoting the parties and break them up before they have a chance to get dangerous. Even with that, Lewis knows that there's only so much that police and the community have to prevent partygoers from gathering in different places across the city.

"They need to do something different," Lewis said. "You're not going to upset us if you're going to shut down some of these side roads and cut down where they can't ride into Comer Cox Park. That's not going to bother us (and it might) deter them if they know we're going to be there. That should help some."

Contact Zach Roth: (217) 899-4338; ZDRoth@gannett.com; @ZacharyRoth13

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield police trying to crack down on "pop-up" gatherings