Olivet College student Tyre Alexander mingles with Grand Valley State students Destiny Daniels, center, and Ashley Mamula, right, March, 17, 2014, outside a party on Collingwood Drive. Although St. Patrick's Day was on a Monday, a school day for MSU students, many students still found time to party. Erin Hampton/The State News
Police face the stigma of being the ultimate fun-killers — with officers seen as rolling around on game days and weekends looking to shut down parties on a whim.
Police, however, have different priorities and only seek to shut down house parties when they get out of hand.
The East Lansing Police Department looks for a series of occurrences to determine when police intervention is necessary, ELPD Lt. Scott Wrigglesworth said.
During the most recent home game against Indiana, ELPD Sgt. Andy Bouck and another officer shut down a house party while on patrol after hearing the music blasting too loud, noticing far too many people in one area and seeing a number of people on the roof.
"We're not here to ruin anyone's fun," Bouck said.
Wrigglesworth said it's typically parties drawing an undue amount of attention to themselves, especially if they are out of control, with little effort by the people throwing the party to reign it in.
"We don't make contact with very many parties if it's just a few party-goers," he said. "It's the parties that are spilling in the street, having open alcohol in the sidewalk and in the street cars are parked every which way and the music's blaring, there's people on the roof... those are the parties we're going to typically respond to and shut down if need be."
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