Teens on the beach in Ocean City.
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Ocean City will utilize a new tactic as part of a broader strategy to try to prevent large groups of rowdy juveniles from disrupting the pivotal summer tourism season.
During its last meeting of 2022, City Council introduced a lengthy ordinance Thursday that would classify a litany of minor offenses such as curfew violations or littering as a “breach of the peace” to give police more power to detain juveniles who allegedly break local laws.
City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson told council members that police would now have “a little more latitude in dealing with juveniles” who violate the ordinance.
Ocean City Police Chief Jay Prettyman said shore communities have been working with Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland on ways to handle large groups of unruly teens that gather on the beaches, boardwalks or other popular hangouts during the summer.
Sutherland is recommending that Ocean City and other Cape May County beach towns should designate minor crimes in their local ordinances as a “breach of the peace” as part of a new strategy to crack down on troublesome teens, Prettyman said.
“This is another tool in our broad strategy to address juvenile behavior,” Prettyman said in an interview after the council meeting.
Ocean City will be the first municipality in Cape May County to try the tactic, he noted.
Prettyman explained that offenses classified as a breach of the peace are broadly considered “anything that disrupts the normal flow of life.”
The proposed ordinance introduced Thursday is 22 pages long. It is scheduled for a public hearing and final vote at the council’s Jan. 12 meeting.
The ordinance covers such things as curfew violations, littering, riding bikes on the Boardwalk after hours, excessive noise, graffiti, setting off illegal fireworks and juveniles misrepresenting their age.
Elected officials and police chiefs at the Jersey Shore have complained for two summers in a row that rowdy teens have little to fear now of being arrested, which has emboldened them to commit crimes such as theft, vandalism, underage public drinking and smoking marijuana.
State laws enacted last year as part of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s juvenile justice reforms put restrictions on police on how far they can go in their interactions with teens.
Instead of placing juveniles under arrest or taking them into custody, officers are required to give them “curbside warnings” for minor crimes such as underage drinking or marijuana possession.
Prettyman said Ocean City’s “breach of the peace” ordinance will not include underage drinking or marijuana consumption because those things are already part of state law.
As he has done repeatedly in the past, Prettyman urged state lawmakers to change the state laws for underage drinking and marijuana use to help police handle the problem.
“We need carve-out legislation for alcohol and marijuana consumption by juveniles,” he said in the interview.
Newly introduced state legislation by three Atlantic County lawmakers would allow police to detain juveniles caught drinking alcohol or using marijuana in public and to notify their parents or legal guardians. The juveniles, though, would not be arrested.
New Jersey Sen. Vincent Polistina, Assemblyman Don Guardian and Assemblywoman Claire Swift, all Republicans, are hopeful that their legislation will also garner support from Democratic lawmakers to get it approved by the Legislature.
They stressed that elected officials do not want to saddle juveniles with a criminal record for possessing alcohol or using marijuana. Their proposed legislation says juveniles under the age of 18 would be given a written warning and taken to the police station under “temporary custody” before they are released to their parents or legal guardians.
Tougher laws targeting rowdy teens and young adults at the Jersey Shore gained greater urgency after an unsanctioned pop-up H2oi car rally in Wildwood on Sept. 24 turned into chaos in the streets, resulting in the deaths of two people struck by a fleeing driver who was later arrested and indicted.
