Sea Isle City will again enforce its nighttime curfew and backpack ban this summer to prevent rowdy teenagers from disrupting the pivotal tourism season beginning on Memorial Day weekend.
The city will have about 40 full-time and seasonal police officers ready to patrol the oceanfront Promenade and other parts of town as part of its strategy to keep troublemakers in check, Mayor Leonard Desiderio said.
“This coming Memorial Day weekend, our police will be fully staffed, with all hands on deck for the entire weekend. The majority will be assigned to address the juvenile situation throughout the city,” Desiderio said in a statement during a City Council meeting Tuesday.
Desiderio also stressed that police will strictly enforce the law and that parents will be “held accountable” for the actions of their children if they get into trouble.
“First of all, I want to make it very clear – we welcome everyone here. But if you don’t want to behave, Sea Isle is not the place for you,” he said.
Like other towns at the Jersey Shore, Sea Isle has experienced an outburst of public drinking, theft, fighting, vandalism and other crimes committed by groups of unruly teens and young people during the last few summers.
“As everyone is aware, several of our shore towns have experienced unfortunate incidents of unruly behavior by juveniles, and it has been most prominent at the start of the season on Memorial Day weekend,” Desiderio said.
However, whatever happens this summer, “Sea Isle will be prepared; Sea Isle will be ready,” Desiderio vowed.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio says Sea Isle "will be ready" to prevent rowdy teens from disrupting the summer tourism season.In 2023, Sea Isle responded to the rowdy behavior by approving a 10 p.m. curfew for juveniles under the age of 18. Generally, minors are not allowed out in public from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. under the curfew.
There are exceptions for juveniles who are accompanied by adults, are going to or returning from their summer jobs or are participating in formal activities such as recreation programs.
In another crime-fighting measure approved in 2023, Sea Isle imposed a backpack ban, for juveniles and adults, on the beaches and Promenade after 10 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
The idea is to prevent anyone from using backpacks to hide alcoholic beverages, drugs, weapons or other contraband while they are in public places.
“The intention of these ordinances was to discourage behaviors and actions that can lead to situations we don’t want. There’s no good reason for young people to be out late unsupervised; and we’ve seen far too many instances of items in backpacks that shouldn’t be on our Promenade or beaches, let alone in the possession of anyone out in public,” Desiderio said.
To enforce the curfew, police will give juveniles a number of warnings to go home if they are out after 10 p.m. Only if the juveniles ignore repeated warnings will police have the authority to take them into custody and call their parents. Juveniles will not be arrested or given a summons for violating the curfew, City Solicitor Paul Baldini has said.
For the backpack ban, adults and juveniles will receive verbal warnings if they violate the ordinance. After repeated warnings, police officers will have the discretion to take it to “the next level,” Sea Isle Police Chief Anthony Garreffi said.
For adults, that may mean they could be slapped with fines for carrying backpacks after hours. Juveniles, on the other hand, may be taken to a police substation, where they will wait until their parents or legal guardians come to pick them up.
Last summer was quieter than in recent years in Sea Isle, but police still had to deal with large groups of juveniles and a few fights and aggravated assaults, Garreffi said. The juvenile trouble was spread out throughout town, instead of being concentrated in one place, such as the Promenade, he noted.
Police have been using surveillance cameras placed in strategic locations across Sea Isle. This one, seen underneath the banner, is attached to the lamp pole at the intersection of Central Avenue and John F. Kennedy Boulevard.Sea Isle has been installing surveillance cameras throughout town in recent years to help police keep watch on popular areas for juveniles and tourists, including the Promenade, the downtown area, the marina and near the municipal playground on John F. Kennedy Boulevard.
The program was expanded this year to add cameras on Landis Avenue at 60th, 62nd and 63rd streets. Separately, another camera was approved for Landis Avenue and 38th Street.
The camera at 38th Street will overlook the Wawa convenience store in Sea Isle’s downtown business district. The cameras at 60th, 62nd and 63rd streets will monitor the busy area encompassing the Acme retail shopping center as well as the cluster of restaurants, bars and other businesses located nearby.
The high-resolution cameras livestream color images directly to police headquarters at City Hall around the clock, year-round. Police will also have the capability to watch the cameras on other devices, including their cellphones and on their mobile data terminals in their patrol vehicles.
This summer, an officer will be assigned at the station to closely monitor the cameras to help police quickly respond to any trouble as it develops, Garreffi said.
“It will speed up the response time of officers,” he said in an interview.
At the same time it has been taking local steps to crack down on rowdy teens, Sea Isle has joined with other shore towns and Cape May County officials in seeking help from the state Legislature to give police more power to deal with juvenile crime.
Desiderio expressed frustration that some members of the Legislature have found it “not too important” to help the towns with crime-fighting measures.
“It’s a problem that has to be addressed by all,” he said.
A police substation at 40th Street and the Promenade is a place where juveniles have been taken to await their parents if they repeatedly violate the 10 p.m. curfew.
