Late Night Weekend Street Parties Continue to Plague Barracks Row Neighbors
by Larry Janezich
Posted October 9, 2026
MPD 1st District Commander Colin Hall at Tuesday Night’s Community Advisory Council Meeting
Last Tuesday night, 1st District Commander Colin Hall heard from a resident who lives near Barracks Row, report that the late night weekend street gatherings on the 800 block of E Street – which had been in abeyance for weeks – have returned. The venue was the monthly 1st District Community Advisory Council meeting chaired by Robert Pittman and held this month at Pillar Church on South Carolina Avenue, SE.
The resident restated the on-going complaints of numerous neighbors about Café 8 patrons coming back to their cars after patronizing the restaurant/club and staying in the street playing car radios, smoking weed, drinking and making noise well after midnight. After peaking early in the summer, the incidents of partying seemed to fall off as patrons tended to stay on 8th Street, “but now it’s back.”
Commander Hall said, “Well that’s definitely something we’re aware of and we’ve been contending with. Barracks Row has changed a little bit with some of the clubs and the nightlife there. We started deploying officers down in that area and maintaining a high visibility specifically around Café 8 when large crowds are present.
We were getting complaints and I haven’t received any that popped up to my level so by letting us know it’s still happening we can redouble our efforts down there.
What happens is they come out of those clubs and hang out in the street or at the firehouse and we’re clearing them out of those areas. It’s like we just displace from one area to the next but we need to know where they are to do any good.
We’ll direct some more proactive resources – we have a Crime Suppression Team and they’re out around that time so it helps if you’re telling us the times so we can narrow down the windows and try to get them out of there with a show force.”
In response to a question about how the Crime Suppression Team operates, Hall said they are proactive enforcement teams; “They’re out there looking for criminal violations – they’re very well versed in making arrests related to alcohol and drug use in public – sometimes they’re gong to find guns associated with these things. Keeping on top of it is the thing were going to do – go in there and send out the message this is not the place to hang out.”
Hall added, “And definitely call 911 when it’s occurring…tell us there’s drug activity there or drinking in public…noise is a disorderly kind of violation but if you add all the descriptions and get descriptions as best you can of the vehicles….”
The resident said “Early on, several of the neighbors went out and asked them politely to stop, but we were threatened so no one goes outside anymore.” There are videos and audio files of the late night activities and Hall said to send them to him.
Since January, there have been three incidents of gunfire near Café 8 at 424 8th Street, SE, including a shooting next the Fire Station where an individual was shot in the leg. Another incident this year occurred in the 500 block of 8th Street, and involved gunfire in front of Ginza Karaoke and Lounge, 526 8th Street, SE.
