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New pier maritime sergeant outlines tougher enforcement, cites repair costs and arrests
Summary
Sergeant Scott Martin, newly assigned to the pier, told the Harbor Commission his combined maritime unit has stepped up enforcement—saying officers logged roughly 2,500 calls and issued scores of citations—and urged better reporting and outreach to justify expanded coverage.
Sergeant Scott Martin, the newly assigned pier maritime sergeant, told the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission on Aug. 10 that his team has begun a "zero‑tolerance" approach to violations on the pier and in harbor areas and that the unit is now operating as a full maritime enforcement team in partnership with harbor patrol.
"My name is Scott Martin. I'm a sergeant. I've been recently assigned to the pier as the pier maritime sergeant," Martin said as he introduced the quarterly public safety report. He told commissioners that from January through June his group responded to about 2,500 calls and made roughly 286 subject contacts; he said 17 of those were transient stops that led to arrests or the moving on of people who had set up encampments.
Martin described a change in enforcement focus after discovering recurring damage from "overhead casting," which he said had resulted in broken decorative bulbs and a city loss he estimated in the tens of thousands. "I didn't know that those bulbs are breaking 1 to 2 bulbs a week, which is a loss of close to 85,000 or more to the city," he said.
The sergeant listed specific enforcement actions: arrests and citations during July 4 events, citations for people on the rocks near a break‑wall rebuild, and a citation for an unauthorized swimmer near a bait barge. He described special events coverage for pier concerts and car shows and previewed the department's role in planning for the Oct. 24 Nike marathon.
Commissioners asked about juvenile enforcement, the practical limits of citations for minors and how enforcement interacts with harbor managers. Martin said officers issue written warnings and citations to juveniles and sometimes detain youth until a parent can be contacted, but that juvenile citations rarely produce fines without follow‑up. He also encouraged harbor users to call to create stat‑driven justification for expanded coverage.
The commission did not take formal action on the report but asked staff to return with further information about camera coverage, drone policy limits and options for outreach to reduce repeat violations.
