Police out in force for Fourth

Kenneth Ma

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- With almost the entire police force on duty for the

Fourth of July festivities, city officials don’t expect much trouble in

Surf City.

About 225 of the city’s 230 police officers will work Tuesday to help

monitor unruly behavior and head off disturbances in the city before and

after the 96th annual Huntington Beach Fourth of July Parade, which is

expected to draw more than 300,000 people.

The officers will patrol the parade route, Downtown, the beaches and the

fireworks display at Huntington Beach High School.

In past years, the city has borrowed law enforcement personnel from the

Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol to

help to keep the crowds under control. But because the number of

post-parade problems has decreased in recent years, the city is asking

only the highway patrol to help with parade traffic this year.

The number of law enforcement personnel on Fourth of July patrol has

steadily declined since the mid-1990s, when disturbances marred the

holiday on several occasions.

In 1995, the patriotic celebration erupted in violence when rowdy

partygoers torched sofas, set trash cans ablaze, overturned bus benches

and trampled dozens of yards. During the chaos, 21-year-old Christopher

Albert was shot and killed.

In 1996, police arrested more than 300 revelers for a variety of

violations, using loudspeakers to disperse crowds from a Downtown stretch

of Main Street.

“Obviously there was a problem five years ago,” city spokesman Rich

Barnard said. The city and businesses “have worked very hard in the last

five years to make the late-evening hours safer. We wanted to make sure

that when families and people come to our community there is a sense of

safety.”

Increased law enforcement and a zero-tolerance policy on drinking in

public has helped to curb the violence, said Lt. Chuck Thomas, a

spokesman for the Huntington Beach Police Department.

The department has also used such tactics as creating teams made up of

one sergeant and eight officers to patrol problem areas in Downtown, and

working together with residents, merchants and the City Council to come

up with safety measures, Thomas said.A number of streets will be closed

during the parade, touted as the largest Fourth of July parade west of

the Mississippi.

A section of Main Street from Acacia to Clay avenues will be closed to

traffic from 7 a.m. to noon, and a Downtown area bordered by Pacific

Coast Highway, Palm Avenue and 11th and Main streets will also be closed

to traffic from 1 p.m. to after midnight.