Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Spring Break crackdown brewing
After increase in arrests this year, Fort Lauderdale considers law to limit crowds, coolers on beach
If Fort Lauderdale Spring Break 2018 were a movie, it might be called “Where the Cops Are.”
The city is brewing plans for a crackdown next March, one that could see bans on beach coolers, limits on the size of crowds on the sands, and a zero-tolerance approach to drinking alcohol on the beach.
The city intends to contact the big colleges, whose students often travel to Fort Lauderdale, with a warning: “Your students are welcome here, and here’s the rules,” City Manager Lee Feldman said, “but we prefer to send them back without a police record.”
Beach hoteliers and city police officials say this year’s Spring Break was larger and rowdier than in years past.
A South Florida Sun Sentinel review of arrest and incident data at the beach bears that out, showing an increase in police activity in March on the barrier island, and particularly along the central beach from Las Olas Boulevard north.
The 131 police calls in March for incidents along the central beach’s State Road A1A represented a 72 percent increase over two years ago, the Sun Sentinel found. Police were called about disorderly conduct, drug use, disorderly intoxication, battery and other crimes. Citywide, police calls were up only 1 percent in the same time period.
Of those 131 calls to police, 43 led to arrests, an increase of 87 percent over two years ago.
It’s been 57 years since “Where the Boys Are” — a film about four
Midwestern girls who head to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break — helped fuel a coed attraction to the city. But Fort Lauderdale tourism leaders and beach businesses have worked since the mid-1980s to shed a reputation for vomiting college students, wet Tshirt contests and drunken teens leaping into swimming pools from hotel balconies.
Beach hotelier Eduardo Fernandez, general manager of Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Beach, said it’s time for a correction, before Spring Break gets out of hand. Fort Lauderdale showed up No. 4 this year on one list of top Spring Break domestic destinations.
“We welcome everyone to Fort Lauderdale,” Fernandez said, “and not everyone parties like it’s 1999.”
A potential new law is floating around City Hall. Police Chief Rick Maglione said it would help police better control the beach scene, “to increase the public’s safety while still allowing for enjoyable experiences on our beach.”
The law could be used during any major event at the beach, including Spring Break, Memorial Day weekend or major festivals.
It would allow the city to:
Ban coolers on the beach. Police can’t ask a person to open a cooler, so city officials said the easiest way to keep beer off the beach is to ban all coolers. The ban might not go over well with locals, but city officials say cold water is available from vendors and the occasional water fountain.
Establish crowd limits for spans of beach property, so that beachgoers could be turned away and sent farther down the sands if one area got packed.
Use a license plate reader on cars headed east to the beach, on the 17th Street Causeway, Las Olas Boulevard and Sunrise Boulevard. Police haven’t said what they’d expect to find, but potential troublemakers could be stopped if an active arrest warrant existed, for example. Ban inflatable devices. Ban tents or tables on the beach.
Limit live music or music blaring from speakers.
Close some traffic routes to non-residents.
The city already prohibits alcoholic beverages — and bottles and glass containers of any kind — on the beach. Drinking alcohol outdoors is allowed on the west side of State Road A1A, where the bars and restaurants are.
The city also occasionally visits the beach with a drug-sniffing dog,
“When you bring a drug dog onto the beach,” Feldman said, “you get a mass exodus.”
A red stamp marks the law as a “draft concept only” that could be changed when commissioners take it up later this year or early next year.
Violators could be arrested or given a notice to appear in court, and could be subject to a $500 fine.
But the city isn’t out to arrest people, Feldman said. Only “jerks” who disobey police officers’ commands could find themselves in handcuffs, he said. Or Spring Breakers like the one who slapped the rear end of a mounted patrol this year and was charged with “battery on a police horse,” or the woman who hit a police officer in the back of the head after being challenged to do so by her friends.
A high-impact event would be one that draws more than 5,000 people to an area of the beach; creates a spike in social media buzz and attention on the city; fills parking lots, garages and hotels; requires help from outside law enforcement agencies; or requires a special-use permit because of its size, a city memo explains.
If the law were passed, no public hearing or city vote would be required to declare an event “high impact” and subject to extra controls. Rather, the law would empower the city manager, Feldman, to make that decision.
Complaints about this year’s Spring Break were voiced immediately.
When beach residents and business owners met March 22 as the parks, recreation and beaches board, they agreed to send a letter to the city.
In the letter, resident Debby Eisinger conveyed the group’s concern that families with young children and people older than 30 would decide not to visit Fort Lauderdale next year because of the “somewhat unruly behavior.”
“While it is wonderful to observe our youth enjoying Fort Lauderdale’s world famous beaches, restaurants and shopping,” her letter said, “it was disheartening to witness so much disrespect for the environment, the rights of others, public property and City ordinances.”
“When you bring a drug dog onto the beach, you get a mass exodus.” City Manager Lee Feldman