Another Shore town, another police department that got ahead of trouble

This has become a pattern worth noting, and a good one.

Earlier this season, ahead of Memorial Day weekend, I wrote about an early-season gathering in Long Branch that threatened to get out of hand before it even started. Long Branch police shut it down fast and nipped a potential serious problem in the bud. Then I wrote about Seaside Heights and Wildwood, complimenting both departments on a proactive stance against out-of-control youth gatherings — enforcing curfews, putting mounted patrols on the boardwalk, making their presence impossible to miss before trouble had a chance to start.

This weekend, add North Wildwood to that list.

On the Fourth of July, the North Wildwood Police Department posted a message on Facebook that left no room for interpretation. The department said it was aware of social media posts encouraging large, unsanctioned gatherings in the area, and made clear that disruptive, reckless or unlawful behavior would not be tolerated. Every officer was working the holiday weekend, the department said, with additional officers pulled in from the Cape May County Sheriff's Office to help with booking. Significant police presence was deployed throughout the city, with a stated zero-tolerance policy for criminal activity, disorderly conduct, violence, property damage, or anything that jeopardized public safety.

SEE ALSO: NJ police are getting ahead of pop-up parties — and it's working 

The response said as much as the post did

The comments on that Facebook post told their own story. One resident wrote that NWPD does not mess around, never did, never will, calling it the best town to live in. Another called the department truly the best of the best, thanking officers for putting their lives on the line every day to keep North Wildwood safe. A third resident, Christine Gain, noted that over 200 teens had been pushed off the beach the previous Friday night before creating problems in a nearby neighborhood — a reminder that this pressure has been building for weeks, not just this one holiday.

Not every comment was pure praise. One resident asked, fairly, that the department not be all talk, and actually enforce the rules it announced. Another described witnessing two kids on electric scooters nearly hitting an elderly couple on the boardwalk, then harassing and filming the couple when they objected, with no officer nearby at the moment it happened. That is a legitimate concern, and it is the kind of specific, on-the-ground account that should inform how a department allocates officers next time, not just this time.

That tension — real appreciation alongside real accountability — is exactly what a functioning relationship between a police department and its community should sound like.

Where this leaves us

It has been quite a Fourth of July weekend, record heat included. The beaches and boardwalks up and down the Shore were packed, and by most accounts, largely trouble-free. We will know more once everything gets reviewed in full once the weekend actually concludes. But aside from a jammed Parkway, packed feeder roads to the coast, a very crowded beach on a very hot day, and severe thunderstorms that shook things up and canceled a few events, this particular problem — the one everyone was bracing for — appears to have been kept under control.

Bravo to the North Wildwood Police Department, and to law enforcement up and down the Jersey Shore, for making a great holiday weekend even greater.