Nuisance parties and undercovers: A look at Athens’ enforcement against underage drinking

It’s a common scene on a Friday night in Athens. The lights are flashing red and blue. The bass abruptly cuts out. The crowd of college students sways down the street to find a new party or bar to haunt. 

One of the primary jobs of Athens law enforcement is monitoring and taking action against underage drinking, whether it be at parties or bars. 

The Athens Police Department (APD), which primarily serves off-campus areas of the city, is responsible for some underage drinking violations, primarily at house parties. Sections 9.14.01 through 9.14.99 of the Athens City Ordinances, known as the “Nuisance Party Law,” dictate circumstances in which a social gathering of any type turns into a nuisance party. These include heavy littering, public urination and/or defecation, visible open containers, illegal drug use, property damage, traffic violations, louder-than-permitted noise levels, underage drinking and supplying alcohol to those underage. 

Police Captain Ralph Harvey said the APD is looking exactly for these things when making decisions on the status of whether a gathering could be considered a nuisance party. 

“Our officers are looking for what it says in the law. The most common one, the one that normally starts first is trash, because the unlawful deposit of litter and refuse show the party is getting messy and the people running it are beginning to lose control, and it escalates from there,” Harvey said. “People get too intoxicated, the party gets too big, and then other things start happening. Someone will be urinating on the side of the house, or there will be open containers on the sidewalk.”

When officers are in the act of shutting down a social gathering that has become a nuisance party, Harvey said they usually need to do relatively little. 

“We go to a house, and they know the rules because of word of mouth, reading them online, or we’ve already talked to them, and they realize when we show up that they're no longer in compliance and they shut down on their own,” Harvey said. “We’ve been more consistent with that over the past five to eight years, and have gotten much more compliance. If we have to start citing people, we start citing people, but that's now the exception rather than the norm. The norm is people comply with our request or without even talking to us.”

Ohio U has a longstanding reputation as a big party school. The Athens NEWS wrote in 2015 that Ohio U topped Playboy’s Top 10 list of U.S. party schools for that year. 

With so many parties, Harvey said officers are expected to be consistent with their actions. 

“The officer has the discretion to make the decision on any citation, any arrest and any enforcement action. What we strive for is consistency, meaning we don’t want an officer to enforce one case one way and another case another way,” Harvey said. “With nuisance parties, it's even more important that we are consistent from day one, so as soon as the school year starts in August, which is generally when a lot of our nuisance party complaints come in. 

Despite being within city limits, underage drinking violations in the bars uptown are generally not policed by the APD. This responsibility falls to the Ohio Investigative Unit, a division of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.”

OIU Enforcement Commander Eric Wolf said looking for underage drinking is one of the primary areas of enforcement.

“We are plainclothes agents looking for alcohol violations, food stamp fraud, and related crimes across the state pretty much every day,” Wolf said. “Some of this is dictated by certain events and complaints that are called in, however, we typically can have agents out any time, any day. Some of the Ohio Administrative Code allows law enforcement officers to conduct investigations on locations during normal operating hours. There are no requirements for them to file any type of request or paperwork before they make these visits.”

When discussions and rumors among students start about “undercovers” being in a bar or bars at a certain time, this is usually in reference to OIU agents. Wolf said the agency operates in a very similar manner to other law enforcement agencies. 

“We’re sworn law enforcement officers so when we enter a location, we’re basically a plainclothes police officer, so we will make observations and take appropriate actions,” Wolf said. “That can mean everything from checking the ID of individuals that appear under 21 years of age that are consuming alcohol to intervening with a suspected drug transaction.”

Wolf said those found in violation of the law will be subject to action depending on the circumstance.

“With the Ohio Investigative Unit, there are two types of actions that we’ll take, one is criminal and one is administrative. If an individual commits a crime, such as serving alcohol to someone under 21 or using a fake ID, those are criminal offenses that we can file with the local court,” Wolf said. “In addition, if violations take place by permit holders, then we can issue a violation notice or administrative citation against the liquor permit itself.”

According to Wolf, OIU has made 11 arrests in Athens County for underage drinking violations since Aug. 19.