The Miami Beach police force is increasing its community presence after several rowdy incidents occurred during the 2019 spring break season.
Police Chief Dan Oates wants to put 301 Miami Beach officers and 71 from surrounding areas on the streets, according to CBS Miami. The 372 officers will be outfitted in riot gear and patrolling through Memorial Day.
“It’s almost a full Memorial Day plan with regard to the traffic, the exclusion zones, no parking on Collins Avenue. All of those things are new, we haven’t done those for spring break. Essentially spring break has become the new Memorial Day for us,” he said.
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“It’s not an easy job dealing with 15,000, twenty-something [people] a day who are here to revel and party, who do not particularly respond well to our efforts,” Oates added.
The crackdown was sparked by several incidents of violence in addition to trash and debris left by partiers. In one particularly tragic event, a young woman was killed when she fell from a car window and was struck by a hit-and-run driver.
Commissioner John Elizabeth Alemán hopes the increased police presence will help change South Beach’s reputation.
“I think we need to eliminate this spring break phenomenon as soon as possible,” she said. “I think we need to make it a lot less fun to be here, unfortunately.”
Miami Beach resident Nancy Liebman doesn’t believe college students are the only ones who shoulder the blame, however. She thinks locals are to blame for some of the issues the community is facing.
“This is not spring break, these are not college kids, maybe there’s a few mixed in. There are people who come here because they know Miami Beach does not do anything about [enforcing laws] but talk, talk, talk,” Liebman told CBS.
She could be onto something because more than half of the 97 people arrested last weekend were from the Miami tri-state area.
In addition to the officers in riot gear, the police department plans to bring in all-terrain vehicles with sirens and erect barricades to control crowds, according to The Miami Herald.
“It sends an appropriate signal about how serious we are,” Oates said.
Mayor Dan Gelber approves of the plan.
“At this point we simply just can’t allow thousands of people to drink and get high and come onto Ocean Drive and then sort of have a block party that creates safety issues,” he said. “I think we’ve sort of been lucky that we haven’t had something worse happen.”
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