Ocean City Police prepare for return of unruly crowds at Cruisin’ event

Ocean City Police say they’re prepared if the crowd of unruly car enthusiasts decide to return in two weeks to wreak havoc during Endless Summer Cruisin’.

Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro said his department is prepared for whatever may occur and they’re monitoring social media and will make adjustments accordingly.

“We have the information and we’re going to make adjustments in terms of personnel and deployment and watching closely on social media,” Chief Buzzuro said. “Once again, we’ll be out in full force and will exercise every resource we have to handle it.”

Annually, law enforcement are faced with increasing challenges as thousands of unruly car enthusiasts take to the area for events. As a result, the town experiences a host of issues, but none like they saw the last weekend of September.

Saturday evening, large crowds gathered in the areas of 13th and 14th Streets and Baltimore Avenue and quickly became unruly. Police tried to clear the area, and several officers were injured as people in the crowd threw rocks and bottles at them.

“For a group like that to come to Ocean City, challenge our police department, to challenge our community, and to really disrepect our community and come here to really to defy the law, just is not acceptable,” Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said.

Moving forward, Mayor Meehan will meet with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to discuss ways to deter the group from wreaking the kind of havoc they did last weekend in the future.

Endless Summer Cruisin’ will take place in Ocean City on Oct. 10.