University will pay overtime to Borough Police

The University will compensate the Princeton Borough Police for overtime hours after members of the force responded to large crowds in attendance at the Quadrangle Club for Lawnparties, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said on Wednesday.

Borough Police were caught off guard after the University failed to obtain noise permits for Lawnparties. “There were no permits obtained, and we were not notified,” Lt. Sharon Papp said at a meeting of the Borough Council on Tuesday evening.

“I got a report that people from Princeton brought in bands, and there was one concert in which there were 3,000 people in attendance,” she said.

Papp explained that the Borough sent police officers to supervise the events, noting that the officers were working overtime, for which the Borough is owed compensation by the University.

Quad has been responsible for applying for the noise permit and notifying the police in past years, Dunne said, even though the concert is jointly sponsored with the USG and the Alcohol Initiative.

Quad social chair Tiffany Ko ’09 said that though the club normally applies for a noise permit for Lawnparties, “this year it might have accidentally slipped through on the list of things to do.”

“We might have forgotten to take care of it — there was a lot going on,” Ko said. “I will try to keep on remembering to do it in the future.”

Though a sum has not been determined yet, the money will most likely come from the USG budget, Dunne said, explaining that the USG normally pays for security for the Quad concert.

USG president Josh Weinstein ’09 said in an e-mail that “there will be a discussion to determine how the fees will be paid soon.”

Dunne took personal responsibility for what he characterized as a “miscommunication” between the University, the clubs and the Borough.

“There appears to have been some oversight on submitting noise permits,” Dunne said.

“From the University’s perspective, it’s our responsibility to get a permit in advance,” Dunne said, explaining that “since [the Lupe Fiasco concert] was a joint event between the USG and Quad, this is something that I take responsibility for as the adviser to the USG.”

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Traditionally, each eating club has been responsible for requesting noise permits from the Borough before holding a Lawnparties concert, Dunne said. The permits are required for outdoor concerts to be held and serve to notify the police about the event.

This year, the police “needed to bring back some additional police because of the size of the crowd,” Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget said in an interview after the Borough Council meeting.

Because of the confusion this year, notifying the police before Lawnparties will become the responsibility of the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS), Dunne said.

Dianne Spatafore, who works in ODUS, confirmed that “in future years our plan would be for either the USG or this office to request a noise permit.”

Dunne noted that planning the concert is “a tremendous amount of work” for Quad members and expressed confidence that the Borough would be notified in a timely manner in the future.

Dunne said, however, that he does not believe that the event lacked security even without a Borough Police presence.He noted that Public Safety officers, Safeguard security officers and security guards employed by Quad were present at the event. In addition, ODUS sent seven staff members to keep an eye on the festivities.

Nevertheless, “when the [Borough Police] came upon the event, they worked, and we want to pay them for that,” Dunne said.