Police use trailer to break up crowds

Faced with complaints of unruly teenagers loitering near the Loews Cineplex and the expected boom of holiday shoppers in Brick, police have set up a substation at the Brick Plaza for the holiday season. And to aid in future enforcement, the Township Council is examining an ordinance that would make it a violation to "remain idle" in public without a legitimate purpose.

"We are taking a very proactive approach to protect our shoppers and our visitors from out of town," Mayor Joseph Scarpelli said at the Nov. 26 council meeting. "And you can’t imagine how many visitors we have from out of town this time of year."

Township officials said there have been numerous complaints about youths hanging around the plaza, using vulgar language, intimidating customers, destroying property, skateboarding and biking around the stores in a reckless manner. Police believe many of them are dropped off by their parents from other towns and left unsupervised throughout the evening.

"We have arrested juveniles for disorderly conduct, fighting, theft, drug possession," said Brick police Lt. Douglas Kinney. "I don’t want to make it sound like an epidemic, because it’s not, but it is a problem."

The council held a first reading on an ordinance that Councilman Gregory Kavanagh called "a tool" for law enforcement officers to break up such crowds. According to the document, "no person shall remain idle or lounge or loiter or sleep in or upon any public street, sidewalk, highway, road, alley or other public place" in Brick. The ordinance goes on to say that no person will be charged with the offense if he or she "had a legitimate business or purpose" in being idle.

The ordinance would also forbid a person "to beg or gather alms" in public.

Kavanagh said the passage is designed to address youths who have been panhandling at the theater through intimidation.

"Basically, what you have are some kids bullying other kids and saying, ‘Hey, do you have some money?’ There were no laws on the books to stop it even though it was wrong," Kavanagh said.

The police substation, housed in a trailer, will serve as a base of operations for the Police Department from now until after New Year’s Day.

Officials hope the trailer, which was first manned on Friday, will cut down on response times for emergency calls at the area’s shopping centers. Officers there will have the ability to conduct police business such as filing reports and processing arrests.

In addition, 70 extra police details will be deployed at the shopping plazas over the season. Those officers will include bike patrols, uniformed and plainclothes walking patrols and police in marked and unmarked vehicles.