There will be more police patrolling Silver Beach on the Fourth of July to try to avoid a repeat of a melee last year. Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey says his department will have at least 10 officers on patrol along with public safety officers from the city of St. Joseph.
“We’ll have uniformed officers, we’ll have officers in plain clothes mingling with the crowd just to make sure everything is safe for everybody,” Bailey tells WSJM News. He says what happened last year shortly before the fireworks show was unfortunate, but the beach overall was safe.
“It was a handful of people in the middle of the beach who got into an argument, and someone threw something and hit a young lady in the head, which was a tragic thing,” the sheriff said, adding “luckily, she wasn’t injured bad.”
The Berrien County Parks Department has been working to remind and inform beachgoers that alcohol is banned at Silver Beach County Park, as are fireworks. Police will be checking coolers for booze. The city of St. Joseph’s fireworks display will be lit at dusk Monday.
