By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City’s “zero tolerance” strategy to prevent troublemaking teens from disrupting the summer vacation season seems to be working after a dramatically quieter Father’s Day weekend, police and city officials say.
Heading into the summer season, the beach town enacted a 10 p.m. curfew for minors under the age of 18 and a backpack ban between the hours of 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. for juveniles and adults through Sept. 15 to curb unruly behavior.
Police Chief Anthony Garreffi said his officers issued only 15 “curbside warnings” to juveniles over the Father’s Day weekend compared to close to 600 during a rowdier Memorial Day weekend.
Essentially, curbside warnings are an informal “talking to” that officers give to juveniles who are committing minor offenses such underage drinking, smoking marijuana, urinating in public, breaking curfew or riding bikes after permitted hours.
Garreffi said the dramatic drop in the number of curbside warnings from Memorial Day weekend to Father’s Day weekend indicates that word is getting out that Sea Isle won’t tolerate rowdy behavior.
“No tolerance. Zero tolerance,” he said of the get-tough policy.
Encouraged by its early success, the police department will continue to follow the same basic strategy to prevent teen rowdiness, Garreffi pointed out.
“I don’t see any reason that we need to change it at this point,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I think our city had a fairly good plan going into the summer. They got out in front of the juvenile situation. So far, so good. It’s been a good strategy.”
Sea Isle approved the curfew and backpack ban in response to an outburst of unruly behavior, ranging from public drinking to vandalism to theft, primarily committed by groups of teenagers or young adults the past two summers in towns along the Jersey Shore.
In Sea Isle’s case, city officials and police are looking to gain the upper hand by preventing large crowds of teens from congregating on the beaches or oceanfront Promenade late at night.
Under the curfew, juveniles are not allowed out from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the beaches, the Promenade and the beach blocks unless they have a legitimate reason. There are exceptions for minors who are accompanied by adults, are going to or returning from their summer jobs or are participating in formal activities such as recreation programs.
Police will give juveniles at least two warnings to go home if they are out after curfew. Only if the juveniles ignore repeated warnings will police have the authority to take them into custody and call their parents. They will not be arrested.
Sea Isle has placed a trailer-like police substation at 40th Street next to the Promenade that is used at night to hold rowdy juveniles in custody – known as a “stationhouse adjustment” – until their parents pick them up.
In another measure to help police prevent trouble from breaking out on the Promenade, adults and juveniles will not be allowed to carry backpacks between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. each night.
There are exceptions in the backpack ban for police officers, fishermen out on the beach, equipment used by journalists and people carrying medical devices.
Sea Isle officials said the backpack ban will make it harder for anyone to conceal alcoholic beverages, weapons or other contraband while out in public.
Garreffi said in some respects, the 10 p.m. curfew for minors has become a preemptive measure for backpacks.
“The curfew is kind of making the backpack ban a nonfactor because if they’re off the Promenade at 10, the backpack ban is not so much of an issue because of the curfew,” he said.
But taken together, the curfew and backpack ban seem to be working to discourage teens from causing trouble, Garreffi said.
“I believe it has a lot to do with it. I’m not going to say it has everything to do with it, but it sure has had a significant impact,” he said.
Councilman Frank Edwardi said he has been contacted by parents who told him they were happy with the way crowds are being handled on the Promenade, also known locally as the boardwalk.
“I’ve gotten a couple of calls that the boardwalk is a thousand percent better,” Edwardi said during the June 27 Council meeting while praising Garreffi and the police department.
Garreffi said it appears that most of the troublemakers in Sea Isle are teens who come from other towns or are on vacation at the shore with their families. He doesn’t believe they are teens who live in Sea Isle.
“They’re definitely not year-round residents. It’s a little bit of kids from other towns, kids that are staying in other towns, and vacationers,” he said.
Jim and Judy Duffy, Sea Isle vacationers from Woodbridge, N.J., said they have noticed that things seem to be quieter on the Promenade since the city enacted the curfew and backpack ban.
“It’s just more calm now on the Promenade,” Jim Duffy said.
“It seems like now there are more families and smaller bunches of kids,” Judy Duffy added.
Both of them said they fully support Sea Isle’s efforts to rein in rowdy teens.
“It’s a nice town. You want to keep it that way,” Jim Duffy said.
During a walk on the Promenade on Thursday afternoon, the Duffys stopped to talk to two of Sea Isle’s seasonal officers, Matt Ackermann and Matt Keller.
Sea Isle is about to receive extra help when 10 more seasonal police officers join the department on Friday. There are plans to immediately put them out on patrol to supplement the full-time officers, Garreffi said.
“So that will beef up our police presence in and around the Promenade,” he noted.
Altogether, Sea Isle is getting 18 seasonal officers this summer, a smaller number than in previous years.
“That’s the lightest we’ve been. It’s becoming challenging,” Garreffi said of the difficulties of hiring seasonal officers.
Traditionally, seasonal police work is a pathway for young men and women to start their careers in law enforcement. As part of their summer experience, they perform duties ranging from handing out parking tickets to going on regular patrols and making arrests.
However, in recent years New Jersey’s shore communities have generally had difficulty in trying to fill their ranks with seasonal officers during the bustling summer months. Some have tried raising the pay for seasonal officers or have stepped up their recruiting efforts to overcome the shortages.
For this summer, Sea Isle’s seasonal cops consist of 11 Class II officers who are authorized to carry a gun, and seven Class I officers who don’t have weapons but do have the authority to issue summonses and tickets.
