QUEEN CREEK, AZ — Queen Creek’s police chief and mayor are looking at solutions to give teens something to do while preventing out-of-control, unsupervised gatherings where kids are getting attacked and sometimes seriously hurt.
The death of 16-year-old Preston Lord sent shockwaves through the Southeast Valley. He was violently attacked in a usually quiet suburban neighborhood after a teen Halloween party ballooned into a free-for-all.
Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice told ABC15 Tuesday that he first noticed a "takeover" trend about a year ago. Large groups would communicate through social media or texts to go to the same place in a short period of time.
“We used to see...street takeovers; it morphed into 300 kids would show up to one place all of a sudden,” Chief Brice said.
These takeovers have been happening at parties, parking garages, shopping centers, fast food hangouts, and open spaces. Social media videos of several teen assault cases under review by police agencies show large groups of kids circling. Instead of intervening to help the victim, some teens turn on phone flashlights to better capture video to share online.
“Where are we going wrong as a society - as parents - taking ownership, taking accountability that something is severely fractured?” said Queen Creek Mayor Julia Wheatley.
She and the police chief attended a community meeting Tuesday that focused on how to provide more structured and safer youth activities, as well as support services for teens.
“We're building a new park; we're building an aquatic center and recreation center places where our youth, our teens, can gather,” Wheatley said. “They can be safe, they can be protected.”
Wheatley is creating a youth advisory council. She also said she supports extra officers and extra funding, if needed, to put more patrols in teen hangout spots.
Chief Brice said police also are monitoring social media and looking for ways to intervene before crowd takeovers happen.
“A couple of weeks ago, my Intel group and my officers discovered a party that was posted online that it was at the house,” Brice said. “We went over there, and the parent had no idea it had been posted on social media.”
Before Lord’s deadly attack at the party in October, Queen Creek officers were called out to the location, but they did not scatter the crowds. The police left to respond to another call for service, and by the time the police came back to the Halloween party, it was too late to save the 16-year-old.
