The three cops who spoke to Bethesda high school seniors and parents have seen a lot during the time-honored tradition of Beach Week — kids jumping out of second-story windows, groups getting evicted from rental homes before even moving in and friends leaving passed out friends on front lawns, to name a few.
In what has become an annual tradition of its own, officers from the Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach police departments came to Bethesda on Monday to give their version of what happens when Montgomery County’s high school graduates head to the beaches in June.
“I’ll tell you right up front, we’re not here to make any friends. We’re not here to tell you your kids are going to be OK,” said Dewey Beach Sgt. Cliff Dempsey. “We’ve seen your kids go home smiling. We’ve seen your kids not come home at all. We’ve seen it all. I’m not here to teach you anything. I’m here to remind you that you folks are allowing your kids to go into this environment.”
It’s about the eighth year the officers have given the talk. It started at Whitman High School and on Monday came to the cafeteria at Walter Johnson High School. A group of parents organized the event, which drew more than 150 students and parents from area schools. MCPS and school PTAs do not sanction Beach Week, synonymous with underage drinking.
Dempsey, Dewey Beach Lt. Billy Hocker and Bethany Beach Sgt. Brandon Elliott made it clear that the vast majority of kids who participate in Beach Week will drink. Underage drinking, possession citations and curfew violations are prevalent, but the cops seemed more concerned about some of the more dangerous things that can happen when 18-year-olds drink in an unsupervised environment.
“What do you think happens when kids take a beer from a party or a 6-pack and decide to walk to another house and see cops standing on the corner? They throw those beers in the bushes and they run,” Hocker said. “We employ 25 of the fastest, most ambitious seasonal police officers you can imagine. Most of them want to make a name for themselves. They’re gonna chase you.
“You end up with four charges,” Hocker said. “You can see how that little tiny mistake turned into something big.”
Of even greater concern to the officers are drugs, alcohol poisonings, sex assaults and robberies they said commonly follow a night of house parties and alcohol.
“Alcohol is a given. There are drugs and other less than savory people, adults, hanging around all the time,” Elliott said. “The problem is, inexperienced people who are 17 and 18, when you put them in a situation where they don’t have to go home that night, they’re going to get a chance to really let loose. Nobody’s going to be there.”
Hocker said Bethany officers issued 56 underage drinking arrests last summer, down from 108 underage drinking arrests in 2012, most of which came in June. Hocker said it was an exciting improvement, but history shows it’s probably not a trend.
The officers also attempted to make clear the distinction of their beach towns from a college environment, something they said kids and parents often don’t think about when thinking about Beach Week.
“I always hear that from parents. Everyone thinks just because your kids are going to be on their own next year, they’re perfectly fine going to the beach for one week,” Dempsey said. “Campus police officers have different goals. Our goal is not to arrest your kids, but they are coming into a community where people live, where someone has to get up for work the next day. Our community thinks of senior week kids as a nuisance. They don’t want you there and who do you think is the first person they’re going to call if you’re hooting and hollering in the middle of the street at 1 a.m.? They’re going to call us.”
Demspey said he’s seen kids drive up to their house, immediately move beer into the house and then get evicted by the house’s watchful landlord before they could even take their clothes out of the car. Hocker said one of the most common problems — and one kids and parents don’t think about — are parking spaces and parking laws.
Dewey Beach law requires people to park with the flow of traffic. Hocker said it’s common for inexperienced drivers in a new town to end up with $200 in parking tickets before the week is over.
The cops also took questions about who would get arrested in certain scenarios. They said it typically comes down to an officer’s judgement. If a group of underage kids got drunk, but called the police and paramedics in the case that one of the friends needed medical attention, Hocker said he might not arrest those kids.
“The right thing to do is to call, no matter what the consequences are,” Hocker said. “That’s not always what happens, but if it does, we have a decision to make. Do we arrest all these folks? They were responsible enough to save their friend. They were irresponsible enough to get him in this situation. Other cops have different attitudes.”
Dempsey seemed to encourage parents not to allow their kids to even get into such situations.
“You folks look exactly like the same crowd I’ve seen here before, but you’ll look a lot different when you have to drive from Bethesda at 3 a.m. to pick your kids up,” Dempsey said. “You will see that you are allowing your kids to come into this environment. You should take a lot of responsibility.”
