Horse patrols, earlier closures, more police: Ways Cape towns might control unruly crowds

It was the Fourth of July in 2005 and from her second floor Commercial Street home in Provincetown, Michele Couture watched the celebrations go sour.

A crowd of approximately 2,000 people had gathered into a space of just a few blocks around Town Hall, police estimated at the time, a fraction of the 60,000 vacationers who had traveled to Provincetown that year for Independence Day celebrations.

Provincetown is no stranger to packed summertime crowds, but this was different, Couture said.

As visitors streamed off the beaches at around 11:30 p.m. after the fireworks, police had blocked off the intersection at Ryder and Commercial streets, creating a bottleneck of 2,000 people with nowhere to go.

"At one point I thought it was going to be a real riot," Couture said. "I thought it was going to go bad in a big way."

Police breaking up gatherings in Dennis this year

Fast forward 17 years and rowdy Fourth of July crowds seem to still be a problem for the Cape. This year it was in Dennis. Last year, Harwich.

"I've been here for 33 years and I've never seen a weekend like this," Lt. Peter Benson with the Dennis Police Department said.

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Responders were kept busy all weekend, but the height of activity culminated on the night of the Fourth of July, where police reported breaking up gatherings of up to 300 people at several beaches across town, including Mayflower, West Dennis, Chapin and Cold Storage beaches.

Backup from Brewster and Yarmouth police departments and the Massachusetts State Police were called in on Monday as well, according to Benson.

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From her house in 2005, Couture, a Provincetown Select Board member at the time, watched as the crowd of largely 18- to 25-year-olds started yelling at outnumbered police officers.

"The people within the sawhorses were just feeding off of each other," she remembered. "The rank and file were totally overwhelmed and confined in this space with these drunken louts."

When the sawhorse blockades were removed and the crowd was able to disperse, it was like a complete change in the energy of the situation, Couture said.

"I'm not saying everyone in that crowd was bad, but enough were to lead to a real riot," she said. "I give kudos to the police, they handled it in a great way. It was an awful position to put them in."

Provincetown took fresh look at crowd control

In a report from the time, then-Chief of Police Ted Meyer said while there were no serious injuries, officers arrested more than 20 people. The incident led town officials, like Couture, to take a hard look at existing crowd control protocols.

Since then, Provincetown police have increased their presence around the Fourth of July with help from the Massachusetts State Police and the Mounted Horse Unit from the Plymouth Police Department.

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The horse unit in particular has a successful crowd-dispersing effect, according to Couture, who said she felt like the key to diffusing a situation like 2005's Fourth of July is to keep people moving.

The mounted officers usually patrol from Standish Street to Gosnold Street, she said, and are able to keep an eye on potential crowd-gatherings.

"The mounted officers just ask people to keep moving, and they're on these tremendous horses, they don't allow people to congregate," she said. "I mean, who's going to argue with a horse?"

Couture, a 30-year resident of Provincetown, said this was a standout event, something she hadn't seen until then and hasn't seen since.

Crowds of 300 in Dennis this past Fourth

Although the 2005 incident in Provincetown was on a much bigger scale than the crowds in Dennis this year, both instances saw large gatherings of mostly 18- to 25- year-olds who had been enjoying the holiday with seemingly more than a few alcoholic beverages.

Despite nearly three-quarters of on-duty staff reporting all over town on the Fourth of July, Benson said that nothing got out of hand, largely due to the swift response of Dennis officers.

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“The crowds weren’t doing anything, but the potential was there," he said. "For the most part it was large gatherings, but if you let it go unchecked late into the night you could get problems, like last year there were a couple of assault and batteries."

There were no reported injuries to officers, he said.

No arrests were made either, Benson said.

At a July 12 Dennis Select Board meeting, Chair Chris Lambton applauded the work of the town's police, fire and beach departments, as well as the town's department of public works for their efforts on the town's busiest holiday weekend.

The Dennis Department of Public Works picked up by hand 7.3 tons of trash off of Mayflower Beach alone after the weekend of the Fourth, according to Lambton.

"We all worked together to have a beautiful weekend," he said.

The Times asked for comment about the Fourth of July crowds in Dennis from the town administrator's office three times and did not receive a reply.

While the Fourth of July weekend in Dennis was certainly a stand-out this year, every town on Cape Cod has experienced similar situations dealing with large crowds on the holiday weekend.

Harwich closed gates, added police for Fourth

Eric Beebe, director of Harwich Recreation Department, said last year the town experienced large crowds at town beaches on the Fourth of July.

This year, however, thanks to changes in policy like shutting beach gates earlier and increased police officer presence, the town didn't have any unruly crowds on the holiday weekend.

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"After last year, we met with the town administrator and the police department and talked about solutions," Beebe said. "This year has definitely been better than last year, it seemed to do the trick."

At National Seashore, groups tend to be quiet, family events

At the Cape Cod National Seashore, Michael Valora, the chief law enforcement officer, said they haven't seen instances of out of control crowds at the six beaches the agency oversees each summer.

"The vast majority of our crowds are here as a family group," Valora said. "We don't tend to attract the rowdy crowds."

Similar to Harwich and Provincetown, law enforcement presence on National Seashore beaches seems to help to keep crowds in check.

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Unlike other beaches on the Cape, the National Seashore allows alcohol consumption so law enforcement officers patrolling keep their eyes out for other potential infractions like natural resource-based crime, Valora said.

Like tourists trying to get close to the bison at Yellowstone National Park, some beachgoers might try to get close to protected seals at National Seashore beaches, Valora said.

"The vast majority of law enforcement contact ends in the lowest level of enforcement," he said. "Few crimes go above that."

Sarah Carlon can be contacted at: scarlon@capecodonline.com or on Twitter: @sarcarlon

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod towns look to prevent unruly 4th of July crowds