'Quiet Nights' unnecessary

Off-campus housing is a constantly evolving clash of lifestyles between the youthful energy of students and the nine-to-five, full-time residents of Bloomington.\nWhile students celebrate surviving a class or passing a test by thumping the latest Ja Rule jam, their 45-year-old neighbor with a family of four falls asleep early in the night. This collision of culture is often inevitable.\nTo remedy the situation, the Bloomington Police Department will resume the enforcement of its "Quiet Nights Initiative." Although the program appears noble in its mission, the program is a discredit to the civility of students and a waste of funding.\nThe program demands law enforcement cruise the community streets seeking houses where loud music, large groups of people or obnoxious behavior may exist. \nWithout provoking from neighbors, the law enforcers assume other neighborhood residents are disturbed by the house in question. Without issuing a formal warning, the officer may leave the house and return 15 minutes later and issue a $50 fine to each resident if the loud behavior persists. The fine is given to each resident regardless of his or her involvement in the night's activities.\nIs this necessary?\nThe program renders the basic process of co-existence useless. A neighbor has every right to sleep, watch television or relax uninterrupted. Perhaps a visit or phone call to the rowdy students would immediately resolve the situation. Should that prove fruitless, a telephone call to the police may be in order.\nSolid relations between students and the Bloomington community should not rest on the wheels of a patrol car rolling aimlessly down city streets. Good neighbors are built through face-to-face communication and an understanding of each other's situations.\nThe program is flawed in both its warning process and penalty process. Should an officer detect a disturbance at a student's residence, a face-to-face formal warning should be mandatory before any type of disciplinary action is taken. The students must be given the chance to explain and correct their behavior. Should the behavior continue, the fine should only be given to the person responsible for the disturbance.\nThe method of randomly seeking out homes considered loud and disturbing at the officers' discretion is bad practice. \nGood neighbors are not made by police programs.\n