Inside Wildwood’s Massive Nightly Boardwalk Curfew Enforcement Operation
The police departments are not playing around. This Memorial Day weekend, the North Wildwood Police Department, Wildwood Police Department, and the New Jersey State Police Mounted Troopers have teamed up to enforce the 10 p.m. boardwalk curfew.
In case you weren’t aware, the Wildwood Boardwalk has a 10 p.m. curfew for anyone 17 years old or younger. The only exception is for minors who are accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Inside Wildwood’s Massive Nightly Boardwalk Curfew Enforcement Operation
This curfew is in addition to the Wildwood Boardwalk backpack ban, which goes into effect each night at 8 p.m. The restriction prohibits backpacks and other large bags from being brought onto the boardwalk during evening hours. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule, including diaper bags, medically necessary equipment bags, and small purses.
City officials originally introduced the backpack ban in response to ongoing safety concerns and issues involving people bringing alcohol onto the boardwalk in bottles and cans hidden inside bags.
The goal of both of these policies are to help reduce disruptive behavior during the busy nighttime hours, especially throughout the summer season when thousands of visitors are on the boardwalk each night.
The Wildwood Video Archive went up to the boardwalk to document the process of how the 10 p.m. boardwalk curfew works.
To make sure that everyone on the boardwalk is aware of the curfew, starting an hour before and every 15 minutes later, an announcement is broadcasted on the entire length of the boardwalk. That announcement explains what the curfew is and how much time is left until the curfew is in effect.
That announcement says; “If you are under the age of 18 and without parenteral supervision, or without identification, you must exit the boardwalk prior to 10PM.”
As soon as 10PM hits, enforcement starts, and it is a well-oiled machine.
While North Wildwood’s officers clear the section of their boardwalk, Wildwood police have teamed up with the New Jersey State Police mounted troopers and start at 26th Street and walk south, stopping anyone under the age of 17 and telling them to get off the boardwalk.
The way this is set up is that at the very front of this procession, there is an officer with a megaphone airing a pre-recorded message telling those under the age of 18 to exit the boardwalk.
You then see mounted police officers following behind. Behind that, you have the police paddy wagon and a dozen or so police officers doing the physical checks of IDs.
This was honestly super impressive to watch on how organized this was, as officers went in different waves to get the next group, stay behind, and then follow up to make sure said group got off the boardwalk.
This is something that will be enforced every single day this summer.
As issues with minors are becoming more and more problematic across all the shore towns, the cities down here are doing everything possible to make sure that the message is getting out, that if you are under the age of 18 and you wanna cause a problem on the boardwalk, then you will be sitting in jail.