Longboat police take aim at Greer Island

Maureen Merrigan says she now feels safe.

She lives on the north end of Longboat Key, near a Manatee County park called Greer Island, known to some as Beer Can Island. It’s not really an island, connected as it is to the mainland by a narrow mangrove forest, but it might as well be.

The secluded beach, for that reason, has become a favorite spot for people looking for a getaway from urban life, Merrigan said. But in recent months, the activity on the sandspit has gotten more delinquent, she said.

“We had people coming off the beach who were drunk, getting into cars,” Merrigan said. “People urinating in people’s yards, cutting through people’s yards. When people start to get really drunk, they get belligerent. We had multiple mailboxes knocked down. Someone’s screen got cut.”

Merrigan chairs a grassroots organization called Longboat Key North, which represents some 800 residences on the north end of the island, she said. The topic of partying on Greer Island made the group’s agenda for its annual meeting this year, Merrigan said.

The group began lobbying the town about oversight of Greer Island years ago when residents were concerned more about litter on the island than those who left it. Manatee County started cleaning the island just weeks ago, work it hadn’t done on its property for years for lack of access.

But the problem of drinking and partying has gotten worse, Merrigan said.

“That area, it’s just a pristine gem of a beach and a park,” Merrigan said. “It’s just a beautiful area, and it’s just been trashed with graffiti and litter and a really sort of bad crowd.”

It got to the point earlier this month that representatives from resident-interest groups on the north end requested a meeting with the town manager, public works director and police chief about what should be done to make the sandspit a clean, safe place.

“It just became a place to party for kids who wanted to really party and get intoxicated,” Merrigan said.

That’s where Police Chief Pete Cumming said he drew the line. He’d gotten complaints about illegal activity on the sandspit before, but hadn’t patrolled the narrow piece of land for lack of access and guaranteed safety.

It takes about 10 minutes to walk from a parking space on North Shore Road to the beach on Greer Island.

The amount of time it took to patrol the island, as well as the hazard of having just one officer in a secluded area with potentially intoxicated individuals, hindered police from accessing the island on a regular basis, he said.

But now the department is “hitting it hard,” Cumming said.

Cumming said he’s using much of his budgeted overtime to have officers patrol the island on foot, by ATV and in boats. The department has officers stationed at the entrance of the park asking beachgoers if they have alcohol, which is prohibited on the beach.

The department has disciplined at least 19 people with arrests or notices to appear in court since it increased enforcement on Greer Island. All complaints were alcohol or drug related, according to law enforcement.

Merrigan said she’s noticed a difference. On recent weekend, Greer Island hosted families and fishermen, an improvement from the partying sort Merrigan said had been regulars to the area.

But Merrigan says she’s “cautiously optimistic.”

 Police need to keep patrolling the sandspit to ensure it doesn’t devolve into a party haven once more.

“[I hope a police presence will] make it a great beach for the residents of Longboat Key, their visitors and other folks in Manatee County who want to use the beach,” Merrigan said. “Bring it back to a great neighborhood beach.”