Ocean City Develops Strategy to Deter Troublemaking Teens This Summer

In the old days, police departments would often put a cop on each high-visibility corner in town to deter the bad guys.

Reminiscent of that crime-fighting strategy, Ocean City is planning to “saturate” the streets and Boardwalk with a heavy police presence to prevent rowdy teenagers from disrupting the pivotal summer tourism season starting on Memorial Day weekend.

While describing the city’s summer plans, Police Chief Bill Campbell said the police department expects to have 65 seasonal officers this summer to supplement its 68 full-time officers.

“Basically, during our peak hours, from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., we’re going to saturate both the street and the Boardwalk with officers so there’s just a higher visibility,” he said in an interview.

To prepare for the big summer holiday crowds, Campbell has instituted “a full recall” that will have the department’s full-time officers working overtime on both the Friday and Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend to handle any potential trouble.  The same thing will happen during the Friday and Saturday night of the Fourth of July weekend.

Campbell said he hopes to deter unruly teens and young people “from thinking that they can get away with whatever they’re going to try to do because they see a lot of officers on the Boardwalk.”

The city is constructing a new $6.1 million police substation at Eighth Street and the Boardwalk. The substation will give the police department an even bigger presence on the Boardwalk when the project is completed this summer.

    Police Chief Bill Campbell plans to have a major police presence on the Boardwalk and Ocean City streets for the summer tourism season.
  

Ocean City’s summer tourism season got off to a tumultuous start last year during a rowdy Friday night on Memorial Day weekend.

Social media was filled with video and photos of teens getting into a fight on the Boardwalk that led to a stabbing.

Campbell said police quickly responded to restore order – and the rest of the Memorial Day weekend was calm in Ocean City.

However, the stabbing continued to attract intense media coverage leading up to the arrest of the assailant, a teenager, several days later, he pointed out.

“So, during that period of time, through social media and more traditional media, there was a lot of attention focused on that incident. If it wasn’t for that, it was a very mild Memorial Day weekend with very few problems,” Campbell said. “Unfortunately, that incident kind of highlighted the Memorial Day weekend, and I think the assumption was the entirety of the weekend was not good. That’s not the truth at all.”

Overall, the entire 2024 summer was relatively quiet in Ocean City, Campbell said. As attention shifts now to the arrival of Memorial Day weekend, the plan is to have a calm summer this year, too, by implementing a broad-based strategy to prevent trouble.

“It becomes like a fluid process. If we see deficiencies in any areas that need to be addressed, we’ll take action to address it as we see fit, as problems develop,” Campbell said. “If we need to change anything or redeploy personnel to what become trouble spots early on, we’ll certainly do that to eliminate the problem.”

    Beaches will be closed at 8 p.m. as part of the city's strategy to prevent trouble.
  

Ocean City has been among a number of Jersey Shore towns that have been forced to deal with rowdy teens and young people during the summer tourism season. Public drinking, fighting and shoplifting have been part of an outburst of crime.

Since 2023, Ocean City has been closing the beaches at 8 p.m. to keep large groups of teens from holding rowdy parties. There is also an 11 p.m. curfew on minors. Ocean City also closes the Boardwalk bathrooms at 10 p.m. Campbell said all of those crime-fighting measures will be in effect again this summer.

Another crime-control tool is Ocean City’s backpack ban on the Boardwalk. It is designed to prevent anyone – juveniles and adults – from hiding alcohol, drugs, weapons or other contraband, Campbell said.

“The curfew and the backpack ordinance that went into effect, I think helped us immensely with really just driving the narrative to the young community that Ocean City wasn’t the place to come to and be able to go and party on the beach. That ended last year. With that, I think we saw a reduction in the number of incidents we had involving juveniles and young adults,” he said.

Other Jersey Shore towns, including Sea Isle City and Wildwood, have enacted their own curfews and backpack bans in recent years to crack down on troublemaking teens disrupting the summer tourism season.

Ocean City’s summer strategy will also include the parking of police cars on the main ramps leading to the Boardwalk. The ramps will include 5th Street, 8th Street, 12th Street, 14th Street and Moorlyn Terrace. The police cars will be parked there round-the-clock for the entire summer, Campbell said.

Campbell said the police cars will not only increase the police department’s visibility on the Boardwalk, but will also block anyone from driving up on the ramps – whether intentionally or accidently – and threatening the safety of pedestrians.

    More police officers will patrol the Boardwalk this summer.