Posted by John Byrne at 1:05 p.m.
Mayor Richard Daley and Police Supt. Jody Weis today said the city will work to make sure the beaches are safe this summer, following 22 arrests of young people who were fighting and causing other disturbances this week around North Avenue Beach.
"They text people, where people are going in congregation," Daley said. "So you make a number of arrests, a number of arrests were both city and suburban. We had a lot of suburban people arrested."
"We know there’s texting going on, something going on in the suburban area with a lot of young adults, we know that," Daley said. Suburban youths are apparently sending each other texts to meet up and drink on Chicago beaches, he said.
Weis said that of the 22 people arrested Monday and Tuesday on the beach, 14 were suburbanites.
Police are looking into installing cameras along the beach to aid with surveillance, according to Weis, who said it’s unfair to draw conclusions about the safety of the beaches based on a bunch of arrests in a couple days.
"We take a short period of time, and all of a sudden ‘Well, now everything is really bad,’" Weis said. "Just give us credit when we look at the whole summer and we get things in place."
"Sometimes you mix alcohol with youth and bad results happen," Weis said.