Getting drunk in the parking lot apparently has become such a popular pastime for some apartment tenants in Arlington Heights that the owner of one complex has had to hire a security guard just to walk the premises and tell people to stop drinking.
Now, with the support of local property managers, police in Arlington Heights may soon get involved.
A proposed change to the village’s disorderly conduct ordinance would authorize police to arrest people drinking alcohol in the private parking lots of multi-family residences and businesses. The Village Board is expected to vote on the ordinance Aug. 3.
A complex owner would have to give police written permission to enforce the ordinance, according to Deputy Chief Ronald McClaskey, of the Arlington Heights Police Department. A waiver could be granted for parties or other special occasions.
There was a dramatic increase in the number of complaints about public drinking and drunkenness coming from the south side of the village shortly after Mt. Prospect enacted an ordinance giving its own police the power to make arrests in private parking lots, McClaskey said.
“It was only natural for the people who used to drink in Mt. Prospect to go across the street to Arlington Heights,” McClaskey said.
Officer Bill Roscop of the Mt. Prospect Police Department agreed that the increase in the number of complaints in Arlington Heights might be related to Mt. Prospect’s ordinance, which dates back three years.
“Since then, our calls about public drinking are down dramatically,” Roscop said.
Before the Mt. Prospect ordinance was enacted, he said, “there were problems with large groups of people drinking in the parking lots. . . . It was a big mess, and it resulted in a public outcry.”
Vijay Gutpa, owner of Arlington Place apartments on Algonquin Road, said he eagerly awaits the day Arlington Heights police have the same authority as their colleagues across the street.
To combat the drinking problem at his complex, Gutpa hired a security guard and wrote into his leases a “two-strikes-you’re-out” clause prohibiting drunkenness and loudness.
“The proposed ordinance is very good,” Gutpa said, though he added, “We will still keep our security guard if it is passed. We want an extra set of eyes watching things.”
