Number of police calls on the rise

Police calls are up this year in one area of Cedar Rapids. Police say calls in Wellington Heights are up 34-percent. They say in the first two months of 2011 calls are up 7-percent compared to last year, city wide.

“Large volume of disturbances, domestics, intoxicated people, drunk drivers.” It was a busy shift, Saturday night into early Sunday morning for Cedar Rapids Police Officer Sergeant Thomas Grubb.

Large crowds of people filled the streets outside of Tycoon Nightclub on Second Avenue Southeast. “I saw a couple different pockets of fights. I broke up one and I was trying to get information from one of the females and another fight broke out,” said Sgt. Grubb. One woman was arrested.

“Every Saturday night after the bars close there's usually a large crowd that gathers at the Road Ranger ... large fights, stabbing,” said Sgt. Grub. Sergeant Grubb says it's a common scene: hundreds of people, some intoxicated, fighting, and even more serious problems, too.

This was the first weekend where the gas station observed its new policy: closing up shop between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. and it might be working. “We didn't have a single call for service at the Road Ranger,” said Sgt. Grubb.

But there were other calls like a medical call for an intoxicated man, and a noise complaint from a hotel party at Best Western. The night ended where it began, back at Tycoon's where police say a man was banging on the nightclub's door well after it closed. He was arrested.

Sergeant Grubb says with warmer temperatures on the way, more patrols and more calls will follow.