Kent City Council voted Wednesday night to approve a party registration program, which would allow residents to alert the Kent Police Department of upcoming gatherings. This vote came after the Feb. 5 recommendation by council’s health and safety committee.

The council’s vote means the program is officially adopted and will be introduced in the next couple of weeks.

Members of council approved the program amid skepticism,

Ward 3 council member Wayne Wilson said, “We don’t really know if [the program] will work or not. And we don’t know if people will sign up for it either. That’s really the major concern we’ve had, but we’re willing to try. Anything will help.”

The voluntary program would invite residents to register their party with the police department up to two days in advance, giving the department the names of the hosts, address of the gathering and time it will be happening.

Wilson said the program would come to no additional cost for the taxpayers and will be carried out in collaboration with the university.

As previously reported by TV2 reporter Alexis Gillies, Kent’s program is roughly based on a similar program at Clemson University. For more information on how the Clemson program is doing, visit Gillies’ article (http://bit.ly/1e78F7q), which KentWired published following the Feb. 5 recommendation by the council committee.

Contact Grace Murray at [email protected].