Photos by REBECCA BARNETT The Roanoke Times

Officer R.B. Lucas of the Roanoke Police Department works on controlling the crowds after the clubs let out downtown on July 17. Disrupting loitering crowds is part of an emerging trend in police tactics, said John Shane, professor of police management training.

The IHOP at Valley View has been the site of three shootings in the past year — and seven in the past five years. Police have been called there 33 times this year.

A crowd rushes out of 202 Market downtown at 1:51 a.m. on a recent Sunday.

Danny Thomas (right) speaks with his friend Landon Williams outside of 202 Market. Thomas said he doesn't look to start trouble with anyone.

It's last call.

Music is pumping, colored lights are flashing and dance club 202 Market in Roanoke's Market Square is packed to its capacity of 342 on a muggy weekend night. Dozens more who couldn't fit inside crowd around the club's entrance. Then the music stops, the lights come up and people pour into the street.

The party's over.

Roanoke police officers wait on the other side of Campbell Avenue to see which way the crowd heads.

Will it be the Sheetz on Williamson Road?

"They shut the lights off before we even get there," said Danny Thomas, 23, of Roanoke, discussing with friends where they'll go next.

"We're just trying to have a good time," Thomas said.

The Stop In convenience store on Melrose Avenue? It shuts "with quickness" when the crowd approaches, he said.

The IHOP restaurant near Valley View Mall?

"Sometimes I can't even pull into the parking lot because the police have it blocked off," Thomas said.

As young people spill from Roanoke's crowded downtown bars at closing time, looking for someplace else to hang out, city police sometimes invoke an unusual alliance with a few all-night businesses that they say keeps partiers from becoming problems. Police alert operators of Roanoke's two Sheetz stores and the Stop In on Melrose Avenue to close, rebuffing approaching crowds in what one commander calls "proactive prevention."

The Valley View IHOP, about three miles from downtown, doesn't close in advance of the crowds. A bystander was wounded during a July 4 shooting in the eatery's parking lot, the third person hit by gunfire there within a year and the seventh in the past five years, according to police records. Police have been called to the restaurant lot three dozen times this year for complaints that include trespassing, disorderly conduct, hit-and-run wrecks, drunkenness, fights and assaults.

IHOP is "very concerned about the issues" at the Valley View restaurant, said Jennifer Pendergrass, communications manager at the chain, owned by Glendale, Calif.-based DineEquity.

"We have taken steps to remedy the situation and are looking at other measures to try to help the situation in the neighborhood," Pendergrass said in a phone interview.

"If people had somewhere else to go besides that IHOP, they wouldn't be having these problems," said Jonte Jones, an event planner in Roanoke since 2002. "Everybody in the city of Roanoke cannot fit into that one IHOP."

Outside 202 Market, those who don't want the night to end caravan elsewhere to continue socializing.

"It looks almost like a convoy" when people pile into cars and leave downtown, said police Lt. Mac Babb, a veteran of more than 20 years. "When our officers see that, it usually prompts them to have dispatch call the businesses."

A call from the police is enough to shut down the normally 24-hour Sheetz on Williamson Road, one of 365 convenience stores in the Altoona, Pa.-based chain. Workers dim the signs, lock the doors and spend the next hour cleaning instead of waiting on customers.

"We don't like to have to shut down, but as a business, we've got to take some responsibility in crime prevention," said Travis Sheetz, the family-run chain's vice president for operations. "We want to stay open, but we feel there is no other alternative at times."

Sheetz has two security guards at the busy store on weekend nights. Sometimes, that's not enough, Travis Sheetz said by phone.

The Stop In Food Store in the 3900 block of Melrose Avenue Northwest also closes when police call, said John Newton, president of the Roanoke-based chain of 90 stores in Virginia and West Virginia. The store's lot has been the scene of four shootings in the past five years, all after midnight, according to police records.

"We did it to stop people from hurting themselves, other people, our customers and employees," Newton said of the decision to close the store when police ask.

"A lot of good folks live in that area," Newton said. "Unfortunately there are a few that are not. We feel that we are just helping the police do their job. They've got a tough job."

Since the latest IHOP lot shooting, police have increased patrols, and restaurant managers have been working with the department to improve security, said police Lt. S. Roman.

The restaurant has stopped filling takeout food orders from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., Roman said, cutting down on people loitering in the parking lot. The strip mall owner also has posted "no trespassing" signs in the lot, allowing police to charge troublemakers with a trespassing violation.

Because shutting the restaurant would affect its business more than the convenience stores, "they are coming up with a plan that will accommodate everyone," Roman said.

On a recent Saturday night, Babb, two police officers on bicycles and an officer in a marked patrol car cruised through the IHOP parking lot. Dozens of people who had been standing around talking abruptly got into their cars and drove off.

Thomas said he and his friends sometimes go to the IHOP after the bars close. They socialize in the parking lot, waiting for the line of people that usually snakes outside the pancake house door to die down.

Babb said police can't always present a show of force at IHOP when the crowds descend. The 15 or 20 officers patrolling Roanoke in the weekend's early hours answer calls throughout the city, Babb said, and an emergency elsewhere drains manpower.

The police partnerships with the convenience stores stretch back several years.

"If we see anything that looks like a crowd may assemble, we take proactive steps to cut down on the places we have to go," Babb said. "One or two officers are not very effective in a crowd of 20 to 30 people."

For a business, it's "a bigger liability to stay open" than to close when a crowd gathers, Babb said. "The bigger the crowd gets, the harder it is for us to control the trouble element."

The tactic is an emerging trend in policing, said John Shane, assistant professor of police management and training at City University of New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Disrupting loitering crowds is an efficient use of police resources, Shane said in a phone interview. A retired Newark, N.J., police officer, Shane compares the Roanoke strategy to barkeepers who notify other establishments of drunks heading their way.

"The police try to prevent as many problems as they can," Shane said. "They can't be everywhere all at one time."

The issue, Shane said, is that "nobody wants to go home."

And there are few safe places for those who want to stay out late -- especially for those who aren't old enough to get into bars, said Jones, the party promoter.

"In this community, younger blacks are the target," Jones said. "They have nothing to do. They can't get in anywhere. If you are just out here in the streets, then something bad is going to happen."

Thomas agreed.

"They are shutting these places down because of the kind of people going there," Thomas said. "It's because of my skin color."

Babb said race has nothing to do with police policy and officers are trained to pay close attention to certain areas because of crime history.

"It doesn't matter to us if it's white, black, Hispanic or other another race," Babb said. "What matters is the safety of the crowd and entire public."

Babb said few people actually cause trouble.

"I can see the frustration when you are out to have a good time and the police show up," Babb said. "But you have to look at the greater potential for danger in the area. We can't predict when problems will occur."

After considering their scant choices, Thomas and his friends decide they'll head to JB's Restaurant & Lounge in the 2300 block of Melrose Avenue.

"We already know that everything is going to get shut down, so we are going to socialize at JB's and stand in the parking lot," Thomas said. "We don't have too many options."