PANAMA CITY — Drugs and guns were the story of Spring Break 2015, according to officials with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
As an unprecedented Spring Break season nears an end, BCSO rolled out their record haul of drugs and guns Wednesday in hopes the annual college holiday will likely never be the same. Officers laid out the spread during a press conference at BCSO headquarters and disclosed tactics that helped acquire a historic amount of guns, drugs and arrests in the month of March.
During the press conference, BCSO Maj. Tommy Ford compared the development of Spring Break’s criminal elements to a cancer that would need to be removed from its host, even if the treatment caused harm on the way to recovery.
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“It has become something bigger and uglier than the Spring Break of old,” Ford said. “What once was a week for college students to decompress gave way to the many that followed the party. A criminal element was also attracted, and we began to experience an increase in violence and lawlessness that shocked the conscience of our community.”
Charges and arrests have seen a stark increase this year, according to BCSO records. Drug arrests grew from 43 last year to 202 this year. Drug charges leapt from 64 last year to 308 in this year. Weapons arrests and charges doubled from last year.
From March 1 through April 5, BCSO more than tripled the numbers of total arrests from 324 last year to 1,091 this year. The number of guns seized during that time increased dramatically from nine last year to 49 in the current year. The number of armed and dangerous arrests was 18 this year, six times that of the previous.
Lt. David Baldwin said that of his 23 years working for BCSO during Spring Break he has observed the typical calls to “drunks” on the Beach evolve into “thugs” with drugs and guns in their swimsuits.
“We are no longer dealing with intoxicated college students here to have a good time,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re getting weapons and narcotics funneled into our area that are destroying the good people of Bay County and this beautiful beach.”
Since gunfire erupted at the month’s end from a Thomas Drive house party, injuring seven college-aged visitors, officials have implemented new laws to curb drinking on the beach. Before then bars were ordered to close earlier and visitors required to have identification while drinking on the beach as an attempt to curb a growing criminal element.
One of the tools at BCSO’s disposal this year was between 35 and 55 additional officers from surrounding jurisdictions on any given Saturday. Undercover officers were engaged in drug stings in clubs and from a mobile drug van designed to catch “dummies selling dope,” according to a cryptic message on the side of the van. The result of the Florida Sheriff’s Taskforce drug operation was 53 arrests.
“They were able to buy drugs from a couple of people each day,” said Capt. Faith Bell.
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Ford pin-pointed one significant shift in the tenor of Spring Break that should have been heeded at the time: the shooting death of PCBPD Sgt. Kevin Kight in March of 2005. He was killed by a Milwaukee man who was visiting for Spring Break but was not a college student.
Ford said the new laws introduced by Bay County Commissioners and Panama City Beach City Council members have helped and will be useful tools in the coming years.
“We’re committed to partnering with you to answer the charge the citizens have given us all to change Spring Break,” he said.