Ocean City officials reject ski mask ban on Boardwalk

Wearing a ski mask on the Ocean City Boardwalk is not going to become a crime.

Ocean City officials discussed, and then rejected, an informal proposal from several business owners for the city to consider banning people from wearing ski masks on the Boardwalk to help deter crime.

Police Chief Bill Campbell told City Council that he believes a mask ban is not needed and would likely raise constitutional issues that could possibly expose Ocean City to liability lawsuits.

“Quite frankly, I don’t think we have an issue with people wearing masks on the 

Boardwalk,” Campbell said during a Council meeting June 13.

Campbell said he thought the proposal was a “knee-jerk reaction” to a small number of teenagers who may have covered their faces to conceal their identities during a fight and stabbing on the Boardwalk during the Memorial Day weekend.

“So, I don’t think we should draft something when there’s not an issue,” he explained of a possible city ordinance to ban ski masks.

Video of the fighting over the Memorial Day weekend went viral on social media, prompting city officials to repeatedly assure the public that police are patrolling the family-friendly Boardwalk and keeping Ocean City safe for residents and tourists.

“We had a rough Memorial Day weekend. We addressed it,” Mayor Jay Gillian said during the council meeting of the city’s response to the rowdy behavior.

Altogether, police brought 23 teens into the police station for fighting, shoplifting and other offenses during the holiday weekend. Police also issued more than 1,300 warnings for drinking alcohol in public, smoking marijuana, curfew violations and other infractions.

The 15-year-old stabbing victim did not suffer life-threatening injuries. The alleged assailant, a 16-year-old boy from Pleasantville, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses.

Police said the fight stemmed from a dispute between teens from Atlantic City, Pleasantville and Mays Landing who already knew each other.

Councilman Jody Levchuk says he is "absolutely" the election winner.

Following the tumultuous holiday weekend, Councilman Jody Levchuk said several Boardwalk business owners approached him and asked whether the city would consider imposing a mask ban as a way to help curb crime. The proposal would have included exemptions for people wearing masks for religious or medical reasons.

Levchuk, whose family owns the Jilly’s shops on the Boardwalk, took the informal proposal to City Council, the Gillian administration and the police department to get their feedback.

“I didn’t know whether I 100 percent agreed with it or not,” Levchuk said of the proposal.

Campbell said he got “mixed opinions” from his senior staff and the police officers who supervise the Boardwalk patrols when he asked them for their reaction to a possible mask ban.

However, they were “largely non-supportive” of it, mostly because of the difficulties of enforcing such a ban and the potential legal liabilities of having a local law that could lead to allegations that the city was illegally targeting people wearing masks, Campbell pointed out.

While praising the Police Department for its efforts to keep the Boardwalk safe, Levchuk said he would defer to Campbell and his staff for their opinions about a possible mask ban.

“I don’t disagree with them. They’re the professionals in this field,” Levchuk said. “I’m certainly not going to look to ask for an ordinance to be pushed that is not something that we’re able to comfortably enforce or it becomes a hardship on our police department.”

    While addressing City Council at a June 13 meeting, Ocean City Police Chief Bill Campbell recommends against imposing a ski mask ban on the Boardwalk.
  

Ocean City has already taken a number of steps to help prevent rowdy teens from causing trouble. 

In 2023, the city began closing the beaches at 8 p.m., shutting down Boardwalk bathrooms at 10 p.m. and imposing an 11 p.m. curfew on juveniles.

The city also banned backpacks on the beach and Boardwalk starting at 8 p.m. to deter teens from hiding drugs, alcohol, weapons and other contraband. Campbell called the backpack ban a successful crime-fighting tool, while recommending against a ban on masks.

“If you compare that (a mask ban) to the backpack ordinance, the backpack ordinance, I think, has been very effective,” he said. “You can make the argument that before the ordinance was passed, that we did have a problem when we did have the beach parties.

“Practically every teenager that was on the Boardwalk and was going to the beach had a backpack on, and that’s what they were using to transport their alcohol, their fireworks, their drugs – whatever it was that they had with them – the contents were in the backpack,” he added.