By Jack White
As students get vaccinated and start returning to stadiums on game days, the University of Maryland Police Department remains adamant about proper safety measures during all campus athletic events.
Two police officers from the UMPD discussed the importance of being prepared for athletic events during a virtual March 29 meeting to inform students and College Park residents about safety.
UMPD Capt. Laura Dyer and Sgt. Rosanne Hoaas urged students to practice safe behavior at all athletic events in College Park year-round to avoid putting local residents at risk.
“The primary focus is always to have a safe and successful event,” Dyer said. “It doesn’t matter if the event is a concert or an athletic event. Planning is the key component.”
UMPD collaborates with other agencies and police departments such as Maryland State Police, Prince George’s County Police and U.S. Park Police for larger campus events, such as sports games.
“I went to many sporting events when I was a student at Maryland and UMPD always did a nice job keeping students safe, while still letting us enjoy the game day atmosphere” said George Shalloway, a University of Maryland alumnus who attended the event.
UMPD supplies proper resources for students that allow for a safe environment during tailgates prior to athletic events.
“Our job is to make sure people are being safe. For example, we don’t want to see tailgaters have more alcohol than food ratio,” Hoaas said. “We want people to have fun, but you can’t just have cases and cases of beer because that will create an issue.”
UMPD provides various safety resources for students who feel unsafe including UMD Guardian, a mobile campus safety app.
According to the UMD Right Now, UMD Guardian is designed to give students, faculty and staff rapid and proactive communications with UMPD, friends, family and co-workers. The app can also call 911 in the event of an emergency.
Students can also access and request a NITE Ride through the UMD Department of Transportation Services.
NITE Ride is an on-demand transport service for students in areas across campus that are not serviced by UMD shuttle evening routes, according to University of Maryland Transportation Services. The program now uses red shuttle vans to carry one or two people directly to their destination between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. on days the university is open.
“I lived in Terrapin Row, which is all the way across campus from the Xfinity Center,” Shalloway said. “I would call a NITE Ride after basketball games because being with an officer made me feel safer, rather than walking back to my apartment alone.”
In 2016, Maryland men’s basketball defeated the Duke Blue Devils 83-81, which ignited student riots across campus. Students knocked over trash cans, threw toilet paper over trees on Route 1 and even set off firecrackers.
University Police tweeted, “we support safe student celebrations, but remember that damaging property is a crime.”
According to Uniform Crime Reports, property crimes are the most common offense at UMD. Over the past 10 years, there was an average of approximately 327 property crime reports each year.
To avoid such crimes, officers accounted for other important components that greatly impact athletic events, such as weather and crowd size.
According to the UMPD Annual Safety and Security Report, UMD is the only campus in Maryland that has been designated a StormReady university by the National Weather Service.
The StormReady distinction is granted to homes, organizations and communities with formal hazardous weather plans, detailed local weather monitoring and 24/7 warning systems through multiple alert mediums, according to the weather service website.
“At outdoor events such as football, there are large crowds and it can be extremely hot. Plus, with so many fans not hydrating, it’s important for us to look at so we can anticipate people that may need relief,” Hoaas said.
The UMPD is hopeful fans will get vaccinated and be able to return to game days with limited restrictions by fall of 2021. In the meantime, the department is complying with the new COVID-19 guidelines that have been implemented by the Big Ten and the NCAA for all athletic events.
Featured image: Terps are excited to return to the stands. Members of UMPD want to make sure they do it safely, they said. Photo by Jack White.