Newport Braces for July 4 Influx, Bolsters Police Staff to Avert New Riot

A police force of 200, a curfew law and police checkpoints will greet Newport Beach visitors this Fourth of July as officials take steps to avoid a repetition of last year’s riot.

“It was so outrageous what happened,” Mayor Philip R. Maurer said Saturday. “What we wanted to do was give our Police Department more tools to control what was a very, very bad situation last year. When you have riots, you have to do something to protect your people and to protect your Police Department.”

One police officer was injured and 159 people went to jail in that Fourth of July melee.

New ordinances giving police more enforcement tools go into effect Thursday, including one that has raised the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union. That ordinance gives the city manager and police chief authority to declare a curfew in any portion of the city where they believe lives and property are in danger.

City Manager Robert L. Wynn said that power is “not going to be flippantly utilized.” But a situation such as last year’s melee on Seashore Drive in west Newport Beach would warrant an emergency curfew, he said.

If that happens, residents and visitors can expect police in cars and helicopters to announce through loudspeakers that everyone must leave the streets and go home, Wynn said.

But Ron Talmo, legal director for the Orange County ACLU chapter, said such a curfew would be tantamount to a violation of free association, free expression and an invasion of privacy.

“The entire City of Newport Beach can be closed down if the city manager (or police chief) wants,” Talmo said. “You can be arrested in your own backyard, in your fenced-in backyard.”

Wynn said residents would be ordered inside their homes only if they live in the immediate area of a riot. City officials could order a general curfew for up to seven days. Newport Beach already has a curfew law affecting minors that allows police to order them off the streets by 10 p.m. if necessary.

While the general curfew can be implemented anywhere in the city at any time during the year, another action adopted last month specifically targets the beach area during the upcoming holiday weekend. Under that law, several beach-area streets will be shut down between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. on July 3 and 4 to allow police and emergency vehicles a clear route to the Balboa Peninsula.

Other ordinances cracking down on noise and allowing traffic checkpoints also go into effect Thursday, Wynn said.

Police, however, already have been using checkpoints as allowed by state law, Wynn said. When cars create a gridlock on Balboa--where young people go for the shopping, restaurants and beach--police turn away drivers who can’t prove they live on Balboa or have an appointment or reservation there, Wynn and Police Lt. Jim Carson said.

Police have used the checkpoints for about two months and expect to continue them, typically on Friday and Saturday nights, as needed throughout the summer, Carson said.

“Balboa is so small, and there’s only one way in and out. When it fills up, we just turn traffic away until it opens up,” Carson said.

Police have patrolled Balboa in force since an April confrontation between officers and about 700 youths who chanted and became rowdy after a girl reportedly lifted her blouse top.

Also this Fourth of July, sheriff’s deputies and police officers from other cities will be on duty in Newport Beach. Instead of the usual 15 officers on a routine Friday or Saturday night, Carson estimated, about 200 will be working during July 3 and 4. Wynn said the officers will be on 12-hour instead of eight-hour shifts.

“All we’re interested in is controlling riots, so it doesn’t endanger lives and properties,” Wynn said.