At a packed community meeting at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, city officials said there will be more police officers on Second Street after a trio of recent shootings in Belmont Shore.
Police will also be working with bar owners to try to tamp down potential problems before they escalate into violence in the popular nightlife and restaurant district.
The shootings have put some neighbors on edge.
In one, a Long Beach resident visiting the beach was wounded when he asked a couple to pick up their discarded beer bottles on the sand.
Nobody was hurt in the two other shootings, which happened on Second Street on June 1 and 4.
All three recent shootings stemmed from disputes, said Long Beach police East Division Commander Shaleana Benson, who also pointed out that overall crime in the area had dropped 17% compared to this time last year.
Councilmember Kristina Duggan, whose district includes Belmont Shore, organized the meeting on Monday to present a public safety plan for the summer.
“We all know summer brings increased activity; it also brings increased challenges with more people coming to Belmont Shore,” Duggan told the room of roughly 75 attendees.
Some residents at the meeting laid blame on bars remaining open late at night, while other residents pointed to a lack of enforcement on people drinking in nearby parking lots before and after visiting the bars.
Duggan convened a similar meeting in March 2024, following two deaths on Second Street.
This year, police and Duggan said they have held meetings with local bar owners to discuss tactics like reading body language to avoid confrontations between groups, Benson said.
Benson said she has instructed officers in her division, “If you’re not on a call between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., you need to be on Second Street.”
The roughly half-mile stretch of bars, restaurants and shops has also been a focus for the High Crime Focus Team, said LBPD Deputy Chief Mike Solomita. The effort was launched in May 2024 to reduce gun violence throughout the city.
Duggan said she’s looking at setting up another meeting with the bar owners along with the Long Beach police vice unit, the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the city’s business licensing division.
“I am looking at some options because things are getting out of hand,” Duggan told residents.
E-bikes, camping and other concerns
Residents also brought up pocket bikes and E-bikes as a concern.
E-bikes that go over 28 mph are illegal for anyone under the age of 16, Benson said, and the pocket bikes that feature “lawnmower engines” aren’t street legal anywhere in the city.
However, the pocket bikes present a challenge to enforce because officers are not allowed to chase them, and they often travel in groups of at least a dozen at a time, Benson said. Over the weekend, a group of more than 100 drove along the coastline, loudly disrupting traffic in some areas.
The department’s focus when pocket bikes take over the street has been “trying to keep the public around them safe” rather than sending in a team of officers to confiscate all of the bikes, Benson said.
Part of the increased enforcement this summer will include cracking down on amplified music played late at night and homeless people setting up tents along the beach, Benson said.
She emphasized that officers were not going to arrest people for sleeping on the beach, but would issue them a citation. If they miss the court date for that citation, then officers would have “a legal reason to arrest them,” Benson said.
One resident commended Panama Joe’s, a sports bar on Second Street, for having a “team of shushers” in the past that was tasked with quieting any loud parties that spilled over into the surrounding neighborhoods.
“I could use a shusher or two,” the resident said.