Police are ramping up for Wednesday night’s University of Maryland basketball game against rival Duke after last year’s riots led to more than two dozen arrests and the suspension of three police officers. The university’s police department has put “a lot of planning” into staffing the game, said U.Md. police spokesman Sgt. Ken Leonard. He said campus police will do crowd control inside the stadium and patrol the campus, while Prince George’s County police will patrol the surrounding College Park area. Maryland State Police and Maryland-National Capital Park Police are also pitching in, he said.
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“I think we’re pretty prepared, just like we always are,” Leonard said.
Prince George’s County police spokesman Cpl. Larry Johnson said officers are focused on the College Park area around the intersection of Route 1 and Knox Drive, where students traditionally rally after big games and in prior years have ventured into nearby neighborhoods, destroying property.
“If the students do come to celebrate a win, they usually concentrate right there,” he explained. “That’s actually a busy intersection and you know cars come through and we worry about the students’ safety.”
More than two dozen Maryland students were arrested last year — and three police officers were suspended after being filmed beating a student — while taking part in the school’s traditional postgame rioting after a seven-point win over the Blue Devils.
The college’s Student Government Association is organizing an on-campus bonfire after the game to keep students from celebrating in the streets or neighborhoods, where they’re most likely to run into trouble with the cops.
“I don’t think we’re trying to harness it,” SGA President Steve Glickman said of the rioting. “I think we’re just trying to give students a place to do it.”
Leonard said he hopes the bonfire will still allow students to “celebrate and jump around and hoot and holler, but not destroy property or do anything illegal.”
