Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Police And University Coordination topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
West Chester police report rising nuisance calls; council hears university citation data
Summary
Police Chief Josh Lee presented monthly public-safety statistics, highlighting arrests for public drunkenness and noise complaints; a council member and chief discussed more frequent sharing of citation data with the university after statistics showed students were a minority of citations this year.
Police Chief Josh Lee told the West Chester Borough Council that while overall call volumes were largely steady, nuisance categories require substantial officer time and attention. For November, he said there were 23 public-drunkenness arrests and 9 noise violations among other counts; in November the borough logged 48 noise complaints, nine of which led to prosecution or citation.
"A large portion of that number of public drunkenness arrests are the police intervening in an incident that involved noise and disruption," Lee said, adding that an arrest for intoxication can require hours of follow-up and custody, which draws officers off other calls.
An unidentified council member outlined the citation-sharing process with the university and shared data showing that over a five-year window there were 703 citations sent to the university (an average of about 140 a year). This year the member said 309 citations had been sent to the university through November, but only 84 of those were confirmed as student-related.
"So not even half, actually," the council member said, arguing the data suggested students were not the majority of nuisance citations and urging more frequent information sharing so the university can act sooner in student cases.
Chief Lee said the department has historically sent the citation data monthly and is exploring more frequent transmission—every two weeks or weekly—to improve the university's ability to respond.
Why it matters: The exchange clarifies where nuisance incidents originate and how the borough and university coordinate. Council members said the figures alter common perceptions that students account for the majority of disturbances and pointed to potential operational changes in data sharing.
What happens next: The police department will examine options to increase the frequency of citation-sharing with the university; no formal policy change or vote was recorded at the meeting.
