A proposed Princeton Borough ordinance allowing Borough Police to enforce underage drinking laws on private property seems to have struck a nerve in the University community. Speaking as a Borough elected official, and only for myself, I offer the following:
Borough Mayor Marvin Reed and the Council have yet to debate any such ordinance. It is anticipated that the Borough's police chief, following the recommendation of the county prosecutor, may ask Reed and the Council to consider such an ordinance. Members of the University community are most welcome to participate in future discussions.
The tea leaves I consult indicate that the ordinance is not likely to pass — at least in the generic form presented by the county prosecutor. Among other things, it has failed to win the endorsement of the Princeton Regional Health Commission and the Princeton Township governing body.
Whatever its merits as recommended by the county prosecutor, the ordinance could be tailored to meet particular local concerns. For example, it might be designed to prohibit only consumption (not possession), penalties for violation might be limited to a fine and alcohol counseling (not loss of motor vehicle privileges) and private residences (as opposed to quasi-public gathering places) might be exempted from its coverage entirely.
By such means, the ordinance could more narrowly target underage drinking at large-scale gatherings such as at the University eating clubs — if that's the conduct the ordinance is proposed to target.
Whatever form any proposed ordinance might take, there are a host of issues that Reed and the Council would consider, including the following:
Alcohol over-consumption, especially among the underaged, is a hot issue nationally and is considered by many interested in public health to be as important as anti-smoking initiatives. Reports in the national media claim that 44 percent of students are "binge drinkers." Locally, newspapers periodically report incidents of alcohol poisoning among the underaged.
But any ordinance regulating conduct on private property raises civil liberty concerns. Among those concerns is the prospect that once on private property to enforce an underage drinking ordinance, police would be in plain view of other behavior and contraband, leading to arrests for violation of other laws. The ordinance could be abused as a means to enforce other laws.
The ordinance also raises policy questions about selective enforcement. Will the ordinance be enforced evenhandedly against prep schoolers living in the Borough's upscale western section and teens of color living in public housing? (Fortunately, in the Borough there appears to be no reported problem of selective enforcement of analogous local legislation prohibiting the possession of open containers of alcohol on public property.)
Ultimately, the ordinance raises concerns about the relationship between the University and non-University communities. How much entanglement do the two communities desire on law enforcement issues?
And, more specifically, do Princeton Borough taxpayers want to pay to enforce an ordinance that appears to implicate primarily the University community? Half of Princeton Borough's real estate is tax exempt. Thus, nonprofit organizations, such as the University, generally do not support the cost of Borough operations by paying real property taxes on all of their real estate. So why increase the burden on the Borough taxpayer by detailing local police to enforce this ordinance?
This last issue is of threshold importance to me. Enacting an underage drinking ordinance would be more appealing if the University or the eating clubs a) support the ordinance; b) persuade Reed and the Council that the ordinance furthers a substantial public policy goal locally; and c) back up that concern with a financial commitment, such as a cash grant or a shift to greater use of University proctors (and commensurate reduced reliance on Borough police) for campus law enforcement.
In the absence of such a commitment by the University or the clubs, why should the Borough pursue the matter?
Which leads to another question: What other duties might University proctors perform on campus to relieve the Borough taxpayers of law enforcement responsibilities there? Attorney-at-law Roger Martindell is Borough Council president. He can be reached at rmartindell@aol.com.
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