University Heights police say they will NOT enforce new tailgate restrictions

bud2380

Well-Known Member
I saw this on KCRG news at 6 last night. They interviewed the officer. He said they are just looking for underage drinkers and basically as long as people are not being obnoxious they are ok with it (just like it used to be in IC). So now I must ask...does anyone know where I can tailgate in University Heights? Because if there are spots, I may have found my new tailgating home.
 
After everything I've read about University Heights police, this is surprising. Just going off of what I've read here and elsewhere, it seems like they write tickets for spitting.
 
I just read that article too. I would say that it is consistent with how our tailgate experience went today. We saw pretty much no difference in the tailgating at Finkbine golf course. Guess I better make sure we continue to get there early. If word of this leaks to the general tailgate community everybody is going to flock to UH.
 
I just read that article too. I would say that it is consistent with how our tailgate experience went today. We saw pretty much no difference in the tailgating at Finkbine golf course. Guess I better make sure we continue to get there early. If word of this leaks to the general tailgate community everybody is going to flock to UH.

I'm guessing not. For the 99.9 of the people who don't act like morons, nothing has changed except for not being able to pound one on your walk to the stadium.
 
Only thing I really heard from people was that you can't take your beers over the Bridge on melrose right by the stadium where the train runs under. If you do, they swarm you.
 
I wasn't on Melrose for 30 seconds and a guy told our group to get rid of the beer as he was just handed a ticket for $127 dollars for open container. I heard this again and an even higher fine near the NW gate as someone was on the street or sidewalk. I asked a Tipton officer on duty and even he was not sure where you could and could not have open container. It really turned me upside down that if you are standing on the sidewalk or street or two feet away in the parking lot, is the difference between a ticket and not! If there is a map that shows what is legal and what is not, I would love to see it published as everyone I talked to was up in arms about this.
 
I'm guessing not. For the 99.9 of the people who don't act like morons, nothing has changed except for not being able to pound one on your walk to the stadium.

Actually, I saw quite a few people walking down Melrose on that side of the bridge with an open container and nothing was happening. In fact, on that side of the bridge before the game I didn't see any police. I did see some more after the game but nothing out of the ordinary.
 
I'm guessing not. For the 99.9 of the people who don't act like morons, nothing has changed except for not being able to pound one on your walk to the stadium.

Actually that is not true at all. You no longer can listen to music at even a remotely loud level, and you can't play any drinking games at all. Thousands of people are afftected by this, not .1%.
 
I wasn't on Melrose for 30 seconds and a guy told our group to get rid of the beer as he was just handed a ticket for $127 dollars for open container. I heard this again and an even higher fine near the NW gate as someone was on the street or sidewalk. I asked a Tipton officer on duty and even he was not sure where you could and could not have open container. It really turned me upside down that if you are standing on the sidewalk or street or two feet away in the parking lot, is the difference between a ticket and not! If there is a map that shows what is legal and what is not, I would love to see it published as everyone I talked to was up in arms about this.

This is a problem that was widely anticipated. It's not a new law, but the ways that it is going to be enforced seems to be somewhat ambiguous and up to the individual police officer, and that shouldn't be the case. Where the law is and is not enforced needs to be cut and dried with no room for mis-interpretation. Pass out maps to the individual officers if need be.

That being said, with 20000 Clone fans coming to Iowa City this weekend, it's probably going to get worse before it gets better.
 
I just read that article too. I would say that it is consistent with how our tailgate experience went today. We saw pretty much no difference in the tailgating at Finkbine golf course. Guess I better make sure we continue to get there early. If word of this leaks to the general tailgate community everybody is going to flock to UH.

Can I ask if people were busted for playing flippy cup or beer pong? All I want is a simple game of flippy cup now and again and have music loud enough I can here it from 2 cars down, so when I'm playing bags I can actually hear our music.
 
Actually that is not true at all. You no longer can listen to music at even a remotely loud level, and you can't play any drinking games at all. Thousands of people are afftected by this, not .1%.

I'm guessing a lot of that has to do with where you are, or if the officer who happened to be in that area is a dick. I'd like to think that on gamedays, the ICPD has better things to do (especially now) than tell people to turn their music down.
 
Can I ask if people were busted for playing flippy cup or beer pong? All I want is a simple game of flippy cup now and again and have music loud enough I can here it from 2 cars down, so when I'm playing bags I can actually hear our music.

Finkbine golf is a little more laid back lot and I rarely see people playing drinking games there in the first place. So I really can't say one way or another. We had the pregame show on the radio and had it going at a fairly high level because we tailgate over two spaces and we never got talked to about it.
 
Only thing I really heard from people was that you can't take your beers over the Bridge on melrose right by the stadium where the train runs under. If you do, they swarm you.

This, you can pound one on your walk as we did but get rid of it before you go over the bridge.
 
This is a problem that was widely anticipated. It's not a new law, but the ways that it is going to be enforced seems to be somewhat ambiguous and up to the individual police officer, and that shouldn't be the case. Where the law is and is not enforced needs to be cut and dried with no room for mis-interpretation. Pass out maps to the individual officers if need be.

That being said, with 20000 Clone fans coming to Iowa City this weekend, it's probably going to get worse before it gets better.

Crap, with 20 different police dept's working game day we will never see any consistency. I don't normally have any problems, but just thought it was classic tree hugger liberal a** U of I policy to bust a guy having a beer walking down the sidewalk and two feet away it's ok. Stick him and his family for more money that the U can use to fund some study a few years from now as to why our team sucks after the fans, recruits and then coaches left Iowa for somewhere that they actually can relax and have a beer before the game.

I am seriously considering dropping my season tickets and watching it from home. It's a big enough hassle on game day to just get to the stadium, let alone worry about paying $127 extra for standing on the sidewalk or somewhere a cop deems as inappropriate after shelling out so much cash on tickets, gear, gas....
 
Crap, with 20 different police dept's working game day we will never see any consistency. I don't normally have any problems, but just thought it was classic tree hugger liberal a** U of I policy to bust a guy having a beer walking down the sidewalk and two feet away it's ok. Stick him and his family for more money that the U can use to fund some study a few years from now as to why our team sucks after the fans, recruits and then coaches left Iowa for somewhere that they actually can relax and have a beer before the game.

I am seriously considering dropping my season tickets and watching it from home. It's a big enough hassle on game day to just get to the stadium, let alone worry about paying $127 extra for standing on the sidewalk or somewhere a cop deems as inappropriate after shelling out so much cash on tickets, gear, gas....

I see what you're saying here, but at the same we've all known about this "enhanced enforcement" for two or three weeks now. I'm going to the MSU and OSU games this year, and to avoid getting an open container ticket, I'm simply not going to take any beer with me on my way to the stadium. If the police aren't aware of what is and is not University property, they can't expect the public to be either.

All that being said, based on what has been said by a few people, it seems like in certain areas the individual officers or units took a no tolerance approach, and I'm guessing that as the season wears on that it becomes a little more lax. It's going to get worse this weekend, but hopefully the week of the Arizona game gives the police some time to review the way they're doing things.
 
I see what you're saying here, but at the same we've all known about this "enhanced enforcement" for two or three weeks now. I'm going to the MSU and OSU games this year, and to avoid getting an open container ticket, I'm simply not going to take any beer with me on my way to the stadium. If the police aren't aware of what is and is not University property, they can't expect the public to be either.

All that being said, based on what has been said by a few people, it seems like in certain areas the individual officers or units took a no tolerance approach, and I'm guessing that as the season wears on that it becomes a little more lax. It's going to get worse this weekend, but hopefully the week of the Arizona game gives the police some time to review the way they're doing things.

Lets hope they review on some of it.
 

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