30A and Walton County are areas where, during Spring Break, there can be as many as 300,000 visitors on any given week through Labor Day, said Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson last year. In 2022, Walton County made more than 1,100 Spring Break arrests.
Chief of Operations Audie Rowell, Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO), recently updated the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) regarding this year’s spring break activities.
He opened his remarks with a quote from former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who said ‘The most effective weapon against crime is cooperation.’
“I want to say thank you,” said Chief Rowell, “thank you to the Commission, thank you to the BCC staff and the citizens of Walton County for your support and understanding – not just for law enforcement, but for public safety. Law enforcement, fire, our EMS folks – I truly believe this is why we are safe, is because we cooperate.” Chief Rowell said he believes Walton County is one of the safest counties in the nation.
“Spring Break is coming up, March 1 through about April 14,” said Chief Rowell. He said the WCSO has been diligently preparing for this through the development of an operation plan to mitigate possible issues and problems.
One of the important components in their preparations is increased staffing. “Literally, about 110% from our normal staffing every day,” he said. During what is commonly called ‘Houston Week’ and the ‘Atlanta Week’ when visitor numbers are heaviest, Chief Rowell said their plan calls for having roughly 54 deputies out at any given time.
“We cancel all days off – that’s including myself. I won’t be taking off during Spring Break and we have overtime positions that deputies sign up for,” he said. “But this year, just to kind of give you an overview of what we’re looking at overtime-wise, for about 44 days of Spring Break, we’re going to have just over a thousand individual overtime positions. So, we’re going to be busy. We’re going to have people out and we’re going to deal with the things we come across.”
Targeting specific areas and quality-of-life issues is another part of their operational plan. This will include the Dogwood Beach Access near Seaside where the Sheriff’s Office will have additional staffing in addition to Rosemary Beach.
Rowell addressed the agency’s policy on underage drinking and large, unruly crowds. “Another thing we do is – we have a zero tolerance. Most people know about our zero tolerance for underage drinking. We also have a zero tolerance for large, unruly crowds. We will not put up with it. Those things will be dispersed and, if arrests need to be made, arrests will be made,” he said.
Rowell also mentioned having problems with large numbers of bicycles in the right-of-way in Seaside. “We had about 100-150 bikes pile up in the right-of-way out onto the street,” he said. “I want to get with (County Administrator) Mr. Sunday to see if we can do some temporary stuff with the right-of-way down there so we can clear those bikes out—even if we have to get down there with a trailer and haul those bikes away, that’s what we’ll do—but we’re going to try to keep the area free of those kinds of things and keep the area looking nice.”
He also said the WCSO does retain the authority to enact a short-term curfew should it become necessary.
Here’s a list of college and district breaks that tend to frequent our area:
March 1st – 10th
Pace Academy
Ball State University
Auburn University
Baylor University
Samford University
Lovett School
University of Georgia
Mercer University
University of Central Missouri
Westminster School
Loyola University Chicago
University of Southern Indiana
University of Memphis
