A preferred Florida spring break vacation spot is completed internet hosting hordes of school college students annually, in keeping with the city’s prime legislation enforcement official.
“Panama Metropolis Seashore can not be a Spring Break city,” Panama Metropolis Police Chief J.R. Talamantez mentioned on the division’s Fb web page Sunday. “That point is over. Yearly we attempt to handle it, and yearly it brings extra challenges. I’m not prepared to danger the security of our metropolis to carry onto one thing that not works.”
Within the coming weeks, Talamantez mentioned, police may have “critical discussions” with stakeholders in metropolis management roles “about the way forward for the Spring Break season.”
“And let me be clear, our legislation enforcement officers shouldn’t be anticipated to shoulder the burden of an occasion that not aligns with the values or imaginative and prescient of this group,” he mentioned. “It’s unfair to proceed inserting that weight on the backs of the women and men who serve and shield this metropolis day by day.”
Within the submit, Talamantez thanked those that visited the city and didn’t trigger hassle.
“To the longer term medical doctors, nurses, engineers, lecturers, and leaders who got here right here for a break, you’re appreciated,” he mentioned. “You made recollections, loved the seashore, and confirmed respect. Most of you went residence with out issues, and that’s precisely the way it ought to be.”
He had stern phrases for troublemakers, although.
“Should you got here with weapons, dangerous intentions, and no respect for this metropolis, we noticed you. You thought you might mix in and get away with it,” he mentioned. “You have been mistaken. Our officers have been prepared, and plenty of of you ended up in handcuffs.
“A few of you fired photographs over petty arguments and social media drama. And when the cuffs went on, the robust act disappeared. Our officers didn’t see hardened criminals. They noticed scared youngsters crying within the interview room. TikTok doesn’t present that half, however our physique cameras do.”
The town has lengthy been a scorching spot for faculty college students seeking to catch some solar in March and April, but in addition for the difficulty that comes together with hundreds of tourists.
For a number of years, the police division has used numerous methods to discourage spring break crime.
In 2023, police deployed Ok-9s to fight drug use and leaned on surveillance cameras in an try and preserve revelers beneath management.
In 2022, police arrested greater than 160 folks throughout a spring break incident when a whole lot trashed a Walmart. They seized 75 weapons from that case alone.
“The gang that has been right here this weekend, there isn’t a phrases that may describe the way in which they’ve behaved themselves, performed themselves, and the quantity of legal guidelines they’ve damaged,” Talamantez mentioned on the time.
That very same yr, spring breakers have been so raucous police closed two miles of metropolis streets.
Fox Information Digital reached out to the Panama Metropolis Seashore Police Division.
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