Officers provide safety tips, warnings during All In Mountain Brook spring break forum

A small group gathered Monday night at the Board of Education to discuss a topic that will soon be relevant to Mountain Brook students, college students and their parents — What really happens on Spring Break?

During the forum, put on by All In Mountain Brook, police officers and sheriff’s deputies from Orange Beach, Panama City, Walton County and Gulf Shores discussed some of the things they see during Spring Break, as well as how parents can advise their children to have a safe and arrest-free spring break.

Mountain Brook Police Department Chief Ted Cook said all members of the panel were eager to help provide information about spring break and to help get their department’s message out to the public.

“It was an honor once again, to be asked by All In Mountain Brook to set up this program for what happens on spring break,” Cook said. “… I asked once again for my colleagues south of us for participation, and overwhelmingly was supported by my friends in law enforcement.”

The officers and deputies first discussed new laws and ordinances that recently have been enacted, mostly as measures to provide safer beaches and to deter some of the typical spring break activities. Cook also asked them to advise parents about important ordinances to keep in mind.

Multiple cities have ejection ordinances — where renters at short-term rental properties can be forced to leave. These do not have a heavy focus on hotels or motels, said Orange Beach Police Chief Joe Fierro, because those properties typically already have a contract in place.

“It allows the landlord or property owner to remove people from the property, and in many cases, it is going to be people who are there on spring break,” Fierro said. Some causes for removing the renters could be drugs, alcohol or loud parties.

In 2015, Panama City Beach enacted an emergency ordinance to stop all drinking on the white, sandy portion of the beaches and to close bars at 2 a.m., instead of the usual 4 a.m. These were enacted to cut down on dangerous activities, said Panama City Beach Police Department Deputy Chief Chad Lindsey, and to help make it easier to police the large crowds that typically come for spring break.

“2015 for us was a rough spring break,” Lindsey said. “The actual spring breakers were really not our problem. It was the thugs and the trash that came down that were trying to take advantage of your kids, and they were taking advantage of your kids. It just got to the point where it, I’m not going to say we couldn’t police it, but we were working six days a week, 12/14/16 hours a day and we could not contain everything.”

Since enacting that ordinance, Panama City Beach businesses have said they saw a 50 percent decline in 2016 and are expecting another decline this year in regard to the typical spring break crowd, Lindsey said, but they have seen an increase in families coming to the area around typical spring break times.

Lt. J.R. Talamentez with Panama City Beach PD said the main reason for the ordinances was to keep the kids who come to spring break safe.

 “It’s not that we’re trying to deter people from coming to town. … We need to maintain control of our city during that time,” Talamentez said. “We are a police department of 60 officers, and we have some help, but at any given time we’re outnumbered 1,000 to 1, so we need to have some rules in place to help us out.”

Orange Beach has also instated an ordinance that no alcohol is allowed on the beach between March 1 and April 17, said Lt. Mike Hill, commander of the patrol division of the Gulf Shores Police Department. This was a “direct result of trying to curb spring break activity,” Hill said. Spring breakers had not been a problem for the last 20 years, so last year’s influx came as a surprise, Hill said.

“If you’re underage, don’t come to drink at Gulf Shores or you’ll go to jail,” Hill said. “If you’re over age and you drink and get stupid, you’ll probably go to jail too.”

Walton County has no new ordinances this year, said Lt. Scott Hogeboom with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, but local businesses have stopped letting kids 18 and under come onto their property after certain times to cut down on crimes. On the beaches, Hogeboom said they have a zero tolerance policy for underage drinking.

“Our deputies will go out on the beach, and they’re just picking kids out because our sheriff doesn’t want to have issues like they do in Panama City and stuff like that,” Hogeboom said. “He goes out, and if you’re caught with alcohol, you’re going to jail. No exceptions.”

Some kids come to spring break and think they do not have to follow the rules because they are on vacation, said Sgt. Tommy Thillet with Walton County Sheriff’s Office. While Walton County is typically a family-oriented and safe place, Thillet said they are seeing more of the “spring break” crowd come their way.

“That did a really good job for their area,” Thillet said of Panama City’s steps to curb spring break activities. “That kicked the kids over towards us. It really did. That shoved them over toward us.”

Following a question from the audience, the officers also reminded parents that anyone supervising minors who are drinking can also face legal consequences.

“The mindset of, ‘Oh, we’ll let them drink but we’ll just make them stay at the house,’ … that’s the wrong idea in every sense of the word,” Talamentez said. “They’re not of legal age, they should not have alcohol, period. That is the only answer to your question, ma’am.”

Aside from making sure their kids do not break the law, all present law enforcement officers encouraged parents to tell their children going on spring break to be safe and to be smart. They said to avoid any super clubs, to watch any drink they have at parties or when they are at a bar, not to take any drugs and to be on their guard. During spring break, they said, there are oftentimes predatory individuals looking to scam, steal from or sell drugs to spring breakers.

All officers said that unfortunately, if someone is seeking drugs, they will probably be able to find them. The interconnectivity from social media as well as the high demand on spring break means drugs are pretty readily available. Aside from these drugs being illegal, the officers said it is becoming more and more common that kids do not know what drugs they are buying — which makes taking those drugs even more dangerous.

“Kids out there are buying clear capsules with a white substance in there, that they are taking the word of this drug dealer that ‘this is what it is,’” said Talamentez. “That is, specifically, how the drug deal happens.”

Even though it may seem that their kid will not listen to their advice, the officers advised all parents to talk to their kids about having a safe spring break. While they will never know the direct influence of the panel, Cook said if it even saves one life, it will have been worthwhile.

“The one thing that we try to express during spring break is we know kids want to come down and have fun, but their actions when they’re  down there reflect on the rest of their life, and impact the rest of their life,” said Hogeboom.

A second panel will take place Tuesday, Jan. 31 at Mountain Brook High School from noon to 1 p.m.