West End Beach: Party or Police?

As Clearwater Township residents to the north debate how much partying should be allowed on Torch Lake’s sandbar, Traverse City residents are raising similar questions about downtown’s West End beach.

Both Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes and Traverse City Police Department Interim Chief of Police Jeff O’Brien say they've received complaints ranging from alcohol abuse and littering to belligerent beachgoers and boats crowding the swim area at the public beach near the volleyball courts.

“We do have more alcohol calls there (than other city beaches), because it’s a drinking beach,” O’Brien tells The Ticker. “And there is more assaultive behavior.”

Beer and wine are banned at Clinch Park Beach, but such beverages are permitted at other city beaches, including West End, the Senior Center and Bryant Park. Estes says boaters ignoring city regulations are further exacerbating issues at West End.

“The boaters are really using that beach as a parking lot, and that’s not the intention of mooring,” Estes says. “They’re anchoring very close to shore, and then they end up washed up on the beach. Every boat is supposed to be 50 feet away from a swimming area…there’s no chance those boats are that far away.”

Residents also complained last week of a homeless encampment at West End. “They are living in the trees, have tents down here, are sleeping in the sand drunk, have their clothes thrown all over the bushes,” one couple wrote in a letter to city commissioners. “We can’t bring our kids up there to play.”

O’Brien confirms that officers removed one tent belonging to a “homeless individual” from the beach last week. But generally speaking, says O’Brien, “we can’t take enforcement against the homeless…and not everyone else. They are allowed to be there, and to drink on the beach.”

O’Brien says officers do not patrol West End regularly, though the department does respond to “every complaint” that originates from that area. TCPD and other local and state law enforcement agencies also “saturated” the beach with officers on both Saturdays of the National Cherry Festival this year, O’Brien says, in response to last year’s festivities that generated viral photos of a trash-strewn West End.

“We lost pretty much any type of order last year…it kind of left a black eye on the community,” says O’Brien. While 12 minors went to Munson Medical Center with alcohol poisoning from West End on the Fourth of July in 2014, only two individuals – one adult and one minor – were hospitalized this year, according to O’Brien. TCPD also increased the number of minor in possession of alcohol citations (MIPs) it gave out from four in 2014 to 12 in 2015.

O’Brien praises National Cherry Festival staff and volunteers for their efforts in keeping the beach clean this year. “From our perspective, we felt (the holiday) was a success,” he says.

Still, West End continues to prompt complaints to city officials. Estes says commissioners could officially review the issue if there was enough residential demand for it. One option – expanding the swim zone to reduce the number of boaters – has been “strongly opposed” by the boating community in the past, says Estes. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t be brought up again.”

Officers could also step up enforcement – but O’Brien notes that option has drawbacks. While Estes believes officers could likely go down “every night in the summer and issue citations” for illegal activity, O’Brien says the community will have to decide whether it wants a “police state” on the beach.

“Most people who go to that beach don’t want a police presence at all,” he says, describing catcalls and a “tense mob mentality” officers often face when making arrests or issuing citations on West End. “You could make it a non-drinking beach, which would alleviate a lot of the problem…but I don’t think people want that.”

Barring a strong community call for action, O’Brien says the department will need to continue to “pick and choose what we enforce down there.”

“We only have so many resources, and we can only commit so many officers to a place at a certain time,” he says.