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• Section 2
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• Section 3
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• Section 4
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• Conclusion
• Links
• Take Quiz

Here are some things to do to lower the chance of a police officer visiting your party:

Know everyone at your event. Don't open up your party to the general public or people you don't know. Make sure those under 21 are not consuming alcohol.

Keep the size of your party reasonable. You have no way of monitoring the behavior of too many guests. Most of the time it is the behavior of the guests that attracts police attention.

Be a responsible host. A host should maintain the ability to monitor the behavior, health, and safety of the guests and be able to identify and report emergencies.

Monitor the Noise Level. Typically parties are called to police attention because of excessive noise. Keep music and voices at a reasonable volume. A typical definition of reasonable volume is being able to hear the sound 100 feet from the source between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. and 50 feet from the source between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Don't become a Bar. If you are selling alcohol, or charging admission to enter your home to drink (selling cups to enter), you have become a bar and are selling/dispensing alcohol illegally.

Keep alcohol inside or on your property. Discourage your guests from leaving your home with open containers of alcohol. If they are on the street with their drinks, they can be issued a citation and will attract police attention to your party. Also, keep exits visible and unblocked.

Sometimes a host needs to contact police. If someone has become violent at your event, you should call the police. If someone has passed out with little or no respiration, you should call 911. However police get involved, here are some hints on how best to handle the situation:

If police come to your event:

Have all tenants that are present make contact with the police. If a law has been violated, refusing to contact police will not avoid a citation. Even if a police officer leaves, they can come back at a later date. You can be cited later and the additional time the police spend trying to contact you will be reported to the appropriate judge.

Be Cooperative. Bring identification with you when you make contact with the police. Ask your guests to avoid trying to influence police decisions. Debating the merits of a citation is best accomplished in court when no one has been drinking.

Be prepared to shut down the party and take responsibility for party goers’ actions.

Turn down music immediately

You’ve reviewed the reasons police may come to your event and what to do when they arrive. Now, let’s review some situations that may require you to call the police.