JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Jacksonville Beach City Council plans to create policy banning unpermitted events.
The move comes three weeks after the St. Patrick's Day shootings that left one person dead and sent hundreds running in the city's central business district.
Jacksonville Beach police believe the shootings stemmed from a large gathering on the beach advertised on social media as "Drunk Day at the Beach," where people were fighting with boxing gloves.
Police eventually broke up the gathering shortly after the boxing began.
“The goal here would be to avoid wading into the crowd," Jacksonville Beach Mayor Chris Hoffman said.
Monday night, city council met with Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Gene Paul Smith to discuss ways to prevent these unpermitted events from happening.
“Take the form letter that tells them [event promoter] they will be held responsible for an unpermitted event and out to the door it goes no questions asked if we know who the individual is," City Manager Mike Staffopoulos said.
The city said the policy would hold the promoter accountable for the event.
In addition to creating the unpermitted event policy, the city also plans to reinforce the policy through aggressive social media campaigns.
“We should be commenting, I think we should be tagging the promoters in our social media," Hoffman said.
City Council said the policy will not target other gatherings such as family reunions, birthday parties and weddings.
It said the goal of the policy is to help make Jacksonville Beach safer and its downtown an area for families and its residents.
“We’re all saying the same thing, which is what’s best for the community," Chief Smith said.
City council will work with the city attorney to create the policy and there is no timetable right now as to when it will be completed.
The city also plans to discuss changes to its paid parking program to include more areas in the city.
It will also discuss how it can better recruit and retain police officers ahead of approval of the next budget.