Highland Park parents who host parties may be billed for police, paramedic costs

Sept. 28--The city of Highland Park is exploring whether it can pass along the costs of police and paramedic responses to parents who knowingly host teen drinking parties or allow them to occur.

Council members gave Corporation Counsel Steven Elrod the go-ahead Monday to research the legality of charging residents for response costs.

"When we tie up three or four officers, sometimes for long periods of time sorting these cases out, is there some way we can recover the costs?," said Police Chief Paul Shafer, framing the question.

The city is reviewing its social hosting ordinance against those in Deerfield, Highwood, Bannockburn and Riverwoods with an eye on creating consistency among the communities that send students to Highland Park and Deerfield high schools.

A model ordinance drafted earlier by former city prosecutor Charles Smith, now a Lake County Circuit Court judge, defines response costs to include the salaries and benefits of the police and fire personnel for the time spent responding to the gathering where alcohol is provided to minors.

City Councilwoman Michelle Holleman was opposed to passing along response costs to parents, but supported the city's comparatively high fines of $500 to $1,000 for a first offense.

"If you are making that call to police because kids are in your basement and in distress, factoring in the thought -- I'm going to have to pay money for this -- could be the difference between requesting assistance and parents trying to handle it on their own," Holleman said. "I am concerned that parents won't make the call because they are worried about paying for it. I feel this is part of the service we are paying for in Highland Park -- to have police available and have them as resources."

Under the city's current ordinance, as well as the state's 2013 social host law, adults can be held accountable for underage drinking that occurs in the home, even if they did not provide the alcohol and were not home at the time.

A "good Samaritan" provision in the state law exempts a host who requests help from police in removing the underage drinkers and halting the party. The model ordinance clarifies the exemption.

"If a youth stays behind to help somebody who is in need of medical assistance, they don't get charged if they follow the law and provide us their name and information," Shafer said. "Parents also can come home, have no knowledge of what is going on in the house, and they call the police to help the kids get home safely," said Shafer, adding that he doesn't believe parents should be charged under those circumstances.

Holleman pressed Shafer to clarify the circumstances under which a parent might be accountable for a party that occurred while they were not at home.

"If a parent says, 'no parties', are they still accountable?," she asked.

"If we can prove that there is prior knowledge," Shafer replied.

A parent whose teen had previously held parties might be expected to take extra precautions, he said. Holleman wondered if a single party held in the past "marked" a teen for life.

"You are focusing in on gray areas, and the fact is, there are so many black-and-white instances that exist in the City of Highland Park," said Elrod, the city's attorney. "We have many simple cases where the parents had absolute knowledge. The adoption of an ordinance along these lines will allow the police to enforce the clear cases, and there are many of those."

In early March, Highland Park police and paramedics responded to a teen drinking party where at least one of the intoxicated teens had become seriously ill. Police cited 18 teenagers for underage consumption of alcohol. The parents were cited for hosting an activity constituting a public nuisance after police determined they were home during the party, which was held the night of the Highland Park High School winter dance.

Shafer said Monday the current ordinance was crafted following a highly-publicized 2006 case involving Deerfield parents and is due for some updating.

In that case, a teen drinking party ended tragically when two 18-year-olds -- one from Bannockburn, the other from Riverwoods -- were killed when a car filled with teens struck a tree.

According to news accounts, the parents were home while beer and rum flowed freely in their basement on the October night of the Deerfield High School Homecoming Dance.

kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com

@KarenABerkowitz

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