Police Crack Down on Students Vandalizing Homes on Bedford Road

Photo Courtesy of the Mt. Pleasant Police Department Facebook page

Photo Courtesy of the Mt. Pleasant Police Department Facebook page

Sean Browne, Editor in Chief

Students have been vandalizing homes and disturbing neighborhoods on Bedford Road in recent weekends.

According to the Mount Pleasant Police Department, eight Pace students were charged with various charges, including underage drinking/open container, disorderly conduct, possession of a forged instrument, unsafe driving, and driving with a suspended license. Most of these violations occurred around 3 A.M on on Sept. 25th.

On Oct. 9th, the police department released a statement on their Facebook page stating: “Numerous summonses were issued in the area of Pace University by officers detailed to the area.”

Paces Executive Director of Safety and Security, Vincent Beatty, explained that students have been walking home from local bars belligerently and causing damage to the area.

“A mailbox was vandalized by a student at four in the morning,” Beatty said. “It’s also just loud noises that start in between one and four o’clock in the morning. ”

Beatty also acknowledged that students have been littering all over these homes. There was one instance of students picking up pizza and hotdogs at 7/11 and then throwing the food on people’s front lawns.

One victim who lives on Bedford Road, who wishes to have their identity and exact address to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, said that this has been a common occurrence.

“Every year when the students come back to school there is a trail of garbage from the seven-eleven all the way to here,” the anonymous resident said. “This goes on practically after every night they walk up here.”

This resident also said that the students leave a lot of beer bottles over the neighborhoods, which is a hazard because of broken glass.

Aside from the littering, there have been also been fights occurring. There was one instance a few weeks ago where a large fight unfolded on the anonymous resident’s front lawn.

These offenses are increasing in frequency and have left this resident worried of what’s going to happen next.

“The volume has been much higher the past couple years,” the resident said. “I have lived here thirty years and I have never seen it like this. We always had a night here or there, but not like this.”

Mount Pleasant Police Department Detective Justin Jacobsen says that the reason for more student disturbances has been the fact that Pace is increasing its enrollment.

“Obviously [Pace] has more students now because they moved all students from the Briarcliff campus to the Pleasantville campus,” Jacobsen said. “So we understand that call volume will go up, just based on more students being there.”

In order to combat these high number of crimes, the police have been increasing their patrol on Bedford Road during the overnight shift.

Punishment for the offenses can vary from a verbal warning to a town summons or an arrest.

Students could also face discipline from the university, such as fines, probation, or suspension from the resident halls, depending on the level of offense.