Security company opts out of beach battles in state

PROVIDENCE — A security company whose guard recently got into a high-profile dispute with a beachgoer in South Kingstown has decided it would very much like to be excluded from the shore access narrative.

NES Solutions’ decision speaks to the ways in which the state’s new shore access law is already having an effect a few weeks after passage. Private property owners have sued to block it, saying it takes away their right to control their property without compensation, but it remains in effect.

“Until clear and concise laws and guidelines are written elaborating what can or can’t be done, we respectfully decline to be involved,” NES Solutions owner Wayne Fantasia said in an email.

The company’s guard was involved in an incident with shore access advocate Scott Keeley on July 3. The guard, stationed on the beach in front of a private home in South Kingstown just past the Charlestown town beach, told Keeley he couldn’t set up in the area, despite the passage of a new law giving people the right to access an area 10 feet from the seaweed line.

It was an early test for a law that didn’t directly address whether people could not just pass through an area but stay there. Charlestown police told the guard that Keeley could indeed set up there, and the incident made headlines and the TV news.

NES’ decision to pull back from beach-related security came after talking to the local police department about it Thursday, Fantasia said. Fantasia pointed not just to the Keeley incident but to broader issues with shore access for the decision.

“I would also like to point out we have been nothing short of harassed via phone, our website, guards physically in person and on all social media accounts we have,” Fantasia said. “This topic has reached a form of fanatical following and it’s hard to tolerate all around.”

That spot on the beach has a place in shore access activism history: Keeley was himself arrested in the area in 2019 after a security guard called the police on him while he was collecting seaweed. Keeley was trying to make a broader point objecting to the presence of the guard that day. (It was a different security company.) The trespassing charge was quickly dismissed and he received a $25,000 settlement with South Kingstown.

“The biggest shock this summer was being told exactly the same thing by a security guard that I was told in 2019,” Keeley said. “It was nice to see that come to an end.”

In the latter incident on July 3, Keeley had sought to have the guard charged under an area of state law that prohibits blocking access to the watery areas of the state. South Kingstown police demurred, saying the guard wasn’t physically obstructing him.

The area is right off the Charlestown town beach over the South Kingstown line. The property owners who apparently hired the guard couldn’t be reached for comment.