THIS WAS THE scene earlier in the year at the Dogwood/Thyme Neighborhood Beach, access, which has been a gathering place for large groups of teenagers on some occasions.
By DOTTY NIST
Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson went on social media on July 8 to acknowledge dissatisfaction with his office’s response to an incident that had occurred on the July 4 at the Dogwood/Thyme Neighborhood Beach Access—and to announce changes to address ongoing problems associated with large groups of unruly teens gathering on the beach.
The beach access in question is located in the Seagrove area.
“Ultimately, I’m the sheriff, that’s my responsibility, so I’m going to accept responsibility with that,” Adkinson emphasized in his remarks regarding the July 4 occurrence..
Adkinson referenced a video that had appeared on social media on July 7 that some residents may have seen showing a rowdy group of approximately 100 teenagers at the beach access and attacks on some individuals by others in the gathering.
Adkinson noted that, while there were thousands of people on the beach on the holiday and approximately 700 calls for service during the 24-hour July 4 holiday period, he felt the WCSO had been remiss in not anticipating problems at the beach access in advance, as there had been issues there several times previously that the WCSO had dealt with.
A WCSO press release issued earlier in the day prior to Adkinson’s talk to the public had indicated that there had been “an altercation involving fireworks” at the beach access on the evening of July 4 from which an individual reported that he and another person had encountered physical conflict with the group of teenagers who were present.
The release had stated that deputies had been called to the location. While acknowledging that minor injuries had resulted from the incident, the WCSO had indicated that neither of the two people who had contacted them had required transport to the hospital. It had stated that the incident was under investigation by the WCSO with ongoing contact with the two people who were attacked.
According to the WCSO release: “This access point has been and will continue to be a focus for our agency since spring break. We have reallocated resources to this area during peak hours and have also shut the access point down to only allow foot traffic to come off the beach. Our deputies have issued numerous MIPs [Minor in Possessions] in this area since March and we will continue to take enforcement action.”
Adkinson pledged changes in how unruly groups of teens would be addressed in the future and stated that those would include “very forward facing measures.”
He explained that beach accesses on either side of Dogwood/Thyme had been closing down at the same time and pushing teens on the beach and other beachgoers “into a central area” at the subject beach access.
Adkinson stated that elements of the W CSO’s enhanced approach would require “administrative changes,” including allocating additional staffing to the area, continuing to work with neighboring homeowners, and taking tighter control over entry to the access/limiting access by people who are not property owners in the area,
“We’ve placed the commanders on night shifts and moved individuals responsible to a south end office to be directly responsible to me to make sure this is handled,” Adkinson said.
He concluded by again acknowledging responsibility for the incident and apologizing “for our failure to handle this in a manner that meets my level of expectation,” adding, “and rest assured that we’re going to address it.”
With investigation continuing on the July 4 occurrence, anyone with information on the incident is encouraged to contact the WCSO at the office’s non-emergency line, (850)-892-8111.
