OCEAN CITY, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) - Police in Ocean City say they have a plan in place to deal with younger teenagers who have become a disturbance lately by riding around town on bicycles, acting inappropriately.
Middle school-aged teens have been found riding on the boardwalk and through the streets.
“Riding against traffic, in the middle of traffic, doing wheelies,” explained Police Chief Jay Prettyman at a recent City Council meeting.
“They started to antagonize vehicles. People started to send us videos. They were sitting in traffic while these bicyclists came head on, really surrounded them, insulted them, smacking the hood of their car, using foul language in front of their kids.”
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Prettyman said police would give the kids warnings and teach them about road safety, letting them know what they’re doing is wrong. But the problem kept escalating.
So police are now doing what he described as “the last resort.”
“You’re going to see some heavier enforcement of the motor vehicle laws, and you’re going to see some issuance of traffic violations to the kids that are actually violating the laws and commuting safety violations,” he said.
Prettyman acknowledged it’s not every single teenager acting disorderly, just this select group. He knows it’s not just teenagers from Ocean City.
Police are focused on finding the ones behaving badly.
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“Our mission is to video tape the groups and identify the kids actually committing the unsafe behaviors by riding wheelies, riding in traffic, smacking cars, using inappropriate behavior and addressing them,” said Prettyman.
He noted because they’re dealing with juveniles, you won’t see officers resorting to chasing them around or using force.
His proposal to the city council included restricting bicycles on the boardwalk past noon on weekends through May 15th, to help ease efforts to fix this problem.
Council members had mixed feelings about this. Some saw it as a solution, while others felt it might cause more problems.
One councilman said he’s worried about the effect this would have on bike rental businesses. Another wondered if there was a way to bring unruly teens into the police station and fine their parents when they came to pick them up.
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Prettyman asks anybody who sees these teenagers in action to call police immediately, even if you’re not sure it’s worth a call or not.
“We need to really implore posting on Facebook or emailing the city website, or emailing your city council person or emailing the mayor is not going to solve the problem,” he added.
“We need to get people to dial the police when it’s happening, so we can get an officer re-dispatched to address the problem at hand.”
Below is part of a joint statement issued last week from Ocean City Police and Mayor Jay Gillian:
To address this activity, the OCPD will:
- Deploy seasonal officers who recently graduated from the Cape May County Police Academy.
- Increase the presence of officers assigned throughout town.
- Issue summonses for reckless and threatening bicycle riding.
- Use a city ordinance to hold parents and guardians accountable for lack of supervision and control over juvenile children.
- Use unmarked cars to take video of illegal behaviors with officers ready to issue summonses.
- Use public and private camera systems citywide to identify and verify illegal behavior.
The department urges the community to help in this effort by reporting illegal behavior as it happens. Enforcement is always easier if reports are timely. Call the non-emergency number at 609-399-9111. For all emergencies, call 9-1-1.