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Police chief reports sharp drop in juvenile incidents, credits enforcement and cancelled teen night
Summary
Beach Haven's police chief reported substantial year-over-year decreases in juvenile-related incidents for summer 2025 — including a drop in curbside warnings (24,000 to 14,000), curfew warnings (20,000 to 9,000), vandalism incidents attributed to juveniles (26 to 9), and juvenile arrests (31 to 22) — and recommended maintaining current enforcement and program changes into next summer.
At the Nov. 25 Beach Haven Borough Council meeting the police chief (unnamed in the public transcript) presented a data summary showing marked reductions in several categories of juvenile-related calls and incidents between the 2024 and 2025 seasons and urged the council to maintain current enforcement and programming approaches.
"In 2024 we had 24,000 curbside warnings. Uh, this year 2025 we had 14,000," the chief said, adding that curfew warnings dropped from 20,000 in 2024 to 9,000 in 2025 and that the department calculated a 54% decrease in curfew warnings. The chief reported juvenile-attributable property damage and vandalism incidents were 26 in 2024 and 9 in 2025 (a 65% decrease) and juvenile arrests fell from 31 to 22 (a 29% decrease).
The chief attributed the improvements to more aggressive enforcement and to the cancellation of the organized "teen night" events that had previously drawn larger out-of-town groups. He said the department wrote more curfew tickets this year (31 in 2024 vs. 67 in 2025) and that overall CAD (computer-aided dispatch) tickets were down by about 5,000 year over year. The chief recommended keeping current policies in place for the next summer and said the department would monitor staffing; he noted the town aimed for roughly 30 summer hires but ended the season with mid-to-low 20s staffing levels.
Council members and residents responded with thanks to the department for the reported improvements and noted positive feedback from local businesses. The chief did not propose new ordinance changes in the public session; his presentation was advisory and informational.
