Price for Quiet Fourth of July: $115,000

The city spent more than $115,000 to keep July 4 quiet this year, but police hope to spend less next year, according to a holiday post-mortem presented to the City Council on Monday.

Previous Fourths saw drunken youths in rock- and bottle-throwing clashes with police, near-riots and couch burnings.

But after police crackdowns the previous three years, holiday arrests dropped 80% from 1996 to 1997.

“We set out to keep peace in the community,’ Police Chief Ron Lowenberg said. The message got out that “if you’re going to come down and be a jerk or raise hell, you’re going to jail.”

The holiday enforcement cost the city about $115,000 in overtime and salaries for the 400 Huntington Beach, Orange County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol officers working that day. The figure is up about $4,000 from the previous year, but is $11,000 less than expected, according to the report given the council by Lt. Jon Arnold, the Huntington Beach Police commander for the holiday.

Officers arrested 111 people on July 4 this year, including two juveniles, compared to 510 adults and 39 juveniles last year.

And of the 109 adults arrested this year, 56 were from outside Huntington Beach.

“The types of people that were coming down here to cause problems, they have moved on,” Arnold said. “‘We couldn’t change this overnight. It’s been in the process since 1994.”

The department has tinkered with its plan each year, bringing in more outside help, cracking down on public drinking, blocking off streets downtown.

Mayor Ralph Bauer said the response has been overwhelmingly supportive. Lowenberg said he “would hope starting with next year we’ll start cutting back” on the number of officers used.

The biggest controversy leading up to the holiday this year involved the city’s ordinance against drinking in public. Last year, officers arrested 236 people on suspicion of drinking in public, including some incredulous homeowners who were arrested for drinking beer on their own front steps. But a judge threw out four arrests, saying the law was unconstitutionally vague.

The City Council amended the ordinance this year, allowing drinking at homes as long as it was on a raised porch or behind a fence.

Nine people were arrested this year for drinking in unenclosed yards or driveways, out of a total of 29 drinking arrests, Arnold said.