By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Teenagers may find themselves going to a new place in Sea Isle City this summer.
But it won’t be a playground, arcade or some other hangout popular with kids.
Sea Isle is bringing back a police substation, where troublemaking teens will wait in custody while their parents are called to come pick them up.
“We’ll mainly use it for stationhouse adjustments for juveniles and a place for parents to take custody of their children,” Sea Isle Police Chief Anthony Garreffi said.
The police substation will resemble the office trailers often found on construction sites. It will be located at 40th Street and the Promenade between Memorial Day and Labor Day over the summer tourism season.
Sea Isle had a police substation at the same location a few years ago, but stopped using it. Garreffi said the substation is returning because it will be part of the city’s strategy for cracking down on unruly juveniles this summer.
After two straight summers of rowdy teens disrupting the busy vacation season, Sea Isle is planning new measures to prevent juveniles from getting out of hand.
City Council is expected to introduce two new ordinances at its meeting Tuesday to impose a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on anyone younger than 18 and to also ban backpacks from the Promenade and beaches after 10 p.m.
There will be curfew exceptions for juveniles who are accompanied by their parents or other adults. The curfew will also not apply if juveniles are either heading to or returning from work at 10 p.m. or participating in another type of formal activity, such as a recreation program, city officials said.
The city is looking to ban backpacks after 10 p.m. on the beaches and Promenade for juveniles and adults from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The idea is to prevent them from using backpacks to hide alcoholic beverages or other contraband while they are in public places.
Adults and juveniles will receive two verbal “curbside warnings” if they violate the ordinances. After repeated warnings, police officers will have the discretion to take it to “the next level,” Garreffi said.
For adults, that may mean they could be slapped with fines for carrying backpacks after 10 p.m.
Juveniles, on the other hand, may be taken to the police substation, where they will wait until their parents or legal guardians come to pick them up. This is what police call a “stationhouse adjustment.”
“It would only be in a situation where they’re a repeat offender of one of these ordinances,” Garreffi said of juveniles who violate the curfew or backpack ban.
Police aren’t planning to formally arrest juveniles for curfew or backpack violations. However, Garreffi noted that juveniles who commit more serious crimes or are intoxicated in public could be brought back to police headquarters at City Hall and arrested.
