MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Police in Miami Beach are working to make sure the streets remain safe during Memorial Day Weekend.
They have a plan in place to avoid the chaos seen in the area during spring break.
“Some people have that assumption anything goes here,” said Paston Eddy Gervais, who sits on Miami-Dade County’s Community Relations Board. “It’s not like that.”
That’s a perception city leaders and law enforcement want to avoid leading up to the holiday weekend.
“We’re trying to make sure there’s law and order, but also with some type of fun and relaxation,” Gervais said.
Wednesday the Community Relations Board met at the Miami Beach Police Department to discuss how to make it a safe but welcoming weekend or everyone.
The city announced steps like restricting access to neighborhoods and halting rentals of scooters and other special specialized vehicles.
“We need to make sure people aren’t surprised by what they can and can’t do, as well as the business owners and the property owners,” said Miami-Dade Community Relations Board Chair John Quick.
Some of the so-called high impact measures include no alcohol and setting capacity limits on beaches.
Police will also be using license plate readers on main corridors coming into the city and suspending rentals of certain vehicles including golf carts, mopeds and others.
Police said they will also be joined this year by nearly 200 volunteer goodwill ambassadors.
“(They) are volunteering their time to come out here and diffuse potential situations before they get to a policing level,” said Miami Beach Police Officer Ernesto Rodriguez.
Traffic will also be impacted.
The city implemented a traffic loop starting at 7 p.m. that weekend, with northbound traffic on Collins Avenue and southbound traffic on Washington Avenue.
Another big change will be limited access to residential neighborhoods.
“Each evening Memorial Day weekend our residential areas will be blocked off,” said Officer Rodriguez. “You have to present some sort of identification.”