Police Thinking First About the Fourth : Law enforcement: Huntington and Newport are already making plans to avert holiday violence.

Police in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach are crafting new strategies to avert the violence that has marred Fourth of July festivities in past years, including beefed-up patrols, tougher party laws and fines aimed at parents.

“When you walk downtown on the Fourth of July this year, you’re going to see streets blocked for traffic with uniformed deputies,” Huntington Beach Lt. Jon Arnold said. “You’re going to see officers on foot. You’re going to see officers on horseback. You’re going to see the tactical team and the motorcycle enforcement team.

“We will be equipped to arrest as many people as possible.”

In Newport Beach, police are busily preparing to avert trouble on Seashore Drive, where out-of-towners rent many of the city’s beachside apartments to party, and crowds congregate as people from throughout the Los Angeles Basin stroll up and down the street.

Fence post holes already are drilled and ready for the fencing that will go up on the Fourth of July to discourage hordes of strollers.

“We put our efforts into disrupting the promenade atmosphere,” Newport Beach Sgt. Andy Gonis said. “To disrupt that, we put up opaque fencing to break up pedestrian traffic.”

In Huntington Beach, new curfew fines go into effect beginning Thursday aimed both at Fourth of July party-goers and summertime crowds. Parents will be fined $35.80 an hour if their children are picked up a second time for violating a 10 p.m. downtown curfew.

Also Thursday, an anti-cruising ordinance takes effect, allowing police in Huntington Beach to ticket drivers who pass by the same point three times within a certain time period.

On July 4, Huntington Beach police plan to close off a large swatch of downtown to traffic and bicycles. Riot-helmet-equipped officers will hit the streets on foot, in patrol cars and on motorcycles, with a backup helicopter reserved solely for the downtown area, said Arnold, who is orchestrating the holiday police response. Sheriff’s deputies will stand fixed at each downtown barricade, and deputies on horseback will assist with crowd control.

“We’re going to do anything humanly possible to keep the peace,” Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg said.

Already, the city’s officers have begun “to set a tone for the summer,” issuing hundreds of traffic citations over the past few weekends to send a message that the city will not tolerate lawbreakers on Independence Day.

“We’re not waiting till the weekend before the Fourth to begin high-profile enforcement,” Arnold said. “We began Memorial Day weekend. Plus, we are increasing our staffing level downtown on weekends, every weekend.”

Revelers last year burned furniture and threw firecrackers, rocks and bottles at Huntington Beach police. They caused near riot conditions the previous year, marking the county’s most serious pattern of holiday disturbances.

The 230-member police force has been both applauded and criticized for the way it cracked down on people, some of whom filed excessive-force claims against the city last year.

Police cleared the streets, spraying troublemakers and bystanders alike from a water truck, confiscated hundreds of bicycles to curtail party-hopping, and used their batons to break up unruly groups. Police made 500 arrests during the holiday weekend, 150 of them on the Fourth.

This year, police will dispatch at least five mobile video teams around town to document illegal activity and help the department defend itself against lawsuits alleging excessive force.

Arnold said officers recently have been trained in “different methods” to quell a disturbance, but he would not elaborate.

“It will not be the water truck, but it will be something much more effective,” he said.

Police hope the promise of all but one downtown merchant to close by 7 p.m. and a stronger police presence will prove a deterrent and finally bring a peaceful Independence Day to the surfer haven.

The entire force, plus “every cadet, reserve officer and retired [police] volunteer” will be standing guard for the holiday, Arnold said.

A sheriff’s jail bus will be parked downtown to hold a steady stream of prisoners if necessary, and four police vans will cruise the downtown area to pick up arrested troublemakers, he said.

California Highway Patrol officers will police Huntington Beach’s Fourth of July parade, which drew more than 300,000 people last year, so that city police can stand by elsewhere.

The extra help from state and county law enforcement agencies will cost the city an estimated $180,000 beyond the costs of employing all its own officers, he said.

The barricade of downtown streets is another addition to last year’s measures, barring bicycles and motorists along Pacific Coast Highway between 2nd and 7th streets and north to Orange Avenue.

In Newport Beach, police will focus this year on unruly parties, employing a recently adopted ordinance to fine repeat offenders for officers’ time.

Police also will strictly enforce an ordinance to ensure that all summer weekly rentals are properly registered and that all landlords and property agents ensure that their renters obey laws governing noise, disorderly conduct and alcohol use, Gonis said.

City-owned parking lots near the beach will close at 2 p.m., and more than 100 city blocks will be closed to traffic. A citywide juvenile curfew for juveniles will go into effect at 10 p.m.

“Obviously if they’re on the way home from the movies, we’re not going to bring them in on curfew violations,” Gonis said. “But if they’re standing on Seashore Drive at 11 p.m. on the Fourth of July and they are from an outlying county, we will probably bring them in.

“The parents don’t appreciate getting a call from the police department at 2 a.m. to come pick up their kids.”