Palm Springs Plans Curbs on Spring Break Revelers

In an effort to prevent a repeat of last year’s Spring Break disturbances, Police Chief Tom Kendra Tuesday outlined a stern new policy that includes employing more police officers, revising traffic laws and even discouraging liquor stores from selling bottled beer, on the grounds that cans make less potent missiles.

Kendra told the City Council that the department plans to deal with the estimated 15,000 young revelers expected here between April 10 and 20 with a larger police presence and swift enforcement actions.

“All indications are that it will be a very busy week before Easter,” Kendra said. “We plan to be fair but firm.”

Kendra spoke at a council study session called to review the Police Department’s plans for dealing with the holiday crowds. The planning in part reflects the recommendations of a task force organized after last year’s disturbances. The task force includes merchants, hotel owners and residents.

Last year, some of the students who celebrated spring vacation here dumped water on passing motorists, ripped clothes off women and threw rocks and bottles at police. Authorities made more than 530 arrests during the event, which cost the city $100,000 in overtime salaries and $40,000 in damages.

This year, the city will have to spend more than $200,000 just to prevent that from happening again, Kendra said.

The centerpiece of Kendra’s program is a $154,000 appropriation to augment Palm Spring’s 85-member police force with 40 additional officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Palm Springs police are scheduled to work 12-hour shifts during the holiday period, adding to overtime costs.

In addition, a radio-equipped law enforcement command center will be established at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in the downtown area. A special police detail would be set up to detain unruly juveniles until their parents arrive to pick them up, Kendra said.

“That’s a good idea,” Bogert said. “If you wake Daddy up at 3 a.m. and say, ‘Come get your little Homer,’ somebody is going to get mad.”

Kendra also suggested that “cruiser gridlock” along Palm Canyon Drive, the main street through town and the scene of much of the trouble last year, could be avoided with some temporary changes in traffic rules. He recommended that traffic signals along the street be kept on green during peak hours, that cross streets be barricaded and that overnight parking along the avenue be banned.

The council is scheduled to act tonight on the appropriation and changes in traffic laws, but the recommendations received a generally warm reception from council members Tuesday.

The city also is taking other preventive measures, including the recommended ban on sales of bottled beer.

“We have asked every liquor distributor in the city not to sell bottled beer,” Kendra said.

Condom Handout Discouraged

Before the meeting, Bogert also noted that he has asked an AIDS prevention group to scratch its plan to hand out 30,000 condoms in the area during Easter Week because “the kids will fill them with water and drop them on people’s heads.”

The city already has mailed thousands of brochures to colleges across the state warning that students who plan to come here should stay drug free and sober, and keep the peace.

“The message is that we are not going to tolerate any horsing around and we will maintain a highly visible police force downtown,” Assistant City Manager Dallas J. Flicek said after the meeting. “If people don’t behave themselves, they will see the inside of a jail cell.”

Flicek, however, acknowledged that the annual student influx, for the most part, represents a major economic benefit to the community and that the city needs to walk a fine line between welcoming tourism and indicating that there will be little tolerance for rowdy behavior.