Shoreline access and civil liberties advocates are crying foul over a new policy in Charlestown welcoming private individuals to collect surveillance evidence for police to use in enforcing a vehicle ordinance on a barrier beach at the center of multiple beach access legal fights.
Under the new policy rolled out by the Charlestown Police Department this summer season, people who believe they see someone violating a seasonal restriction on driving on the beach face at the Quonochontaug Barrier Beach can record video to send to the police department for officers to investigate and possibly act on, according to Charlestown Town Administrator Jeffrey Allen.
“The police department has been accepting time-stamped videos of potential violators, and they research it, and they obtain a written statement from the person who was responsible for taking the video, and they will look into it and potentially write summonses,” Allen said. “We’re basically getting the information from a private property owner.”
In explaining the policy, he said the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management also accepts evidence from individuals “in these types of situations where there’s not a lot of active enforcement for whatever reason – right, lack of manpower, or situations where this is hard to get to.”
Charlestown police have already issued two tickets using the new system, Allen said. While it’s not clear what fine the tickets levy, the municipal ordinance they are issued under provides for penalties up to a $500 fine or 30 days imprisonment.
Allen, who previously served as chief of the Charlestown Police Department during a 32-year law enforcement career, said the new policy was “a first for me.”
“I never really heard of it,” Allen said. “But times are changing, right?”
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, had a stronger reaction to the new policy.
“It sounds very disturbing,” Brown said. “The idea of delegating private citizens to engage in this type of law enforcement activity seems quite inappropriate.”
“That’s something that we might very well look into once we get more information about what’s going on,” he added. “If the town is essentially deputizing private residents to enforce a local ordinance, it’s problematic.”
Scott Keeley, a shoreline access advocate and Charlestown resident, said the policy has created “vigilantes” gathering information for law enforcement.
“It doesn’t sound right to me at all,” Keeley said. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”
The new policy comes as the town continues to navigate a fraught situation on the Charlestown side of the Quonochontaug Barrier Beach, which begins in Westerly and stretches 1.7 miles east before ending at a state breachway.
The Nope’s Island Conservation Association, which owns the majority of the land on the barrier beach in Charlestown, has been pressuring the town to more strictly enforce a town ordinance that prevents vehicles from traveling on the beach face in Charlestown during the summer months. Nope’s Island members say four-wheel-drive vehicles are damaging the dunes.
Allen said the evidence that led to the two tickets was submitted to the police department by the conservation group.
Shoreline access advocates and fishermen who use the area have accused the conservation association of overstating the threat of vehicles as part of a “ruse” aimed at making the area less accessible to visitors. The Nope’s Island Conservation Association is associated with the Weekapaug Fire District, which is fighting two costly legal battles to prevent public access to the barrier beach shores. The two organizations share the same address, the fire district headquarters, and belong to a membership group that sets policies on the barrier beach.
People pushing for increased police enforcement also contend the Sand Trail path that leads down the barrier beach and onto the beach sand in Charlestown does not give the public the right to access the state property at the breachway. The path is currently before the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council for consideration as a state designated right-of-way to the shore, and the Weekapaug Fire District has taken the case to court to prevent a public designation.
Earlier this year, Charlestown Town Council member Stephen Stokes held a private meeting with Nope’s Island and officials from Charlestown, Westerly, the CRMC, DEM, and Rhode Island Mobile Sportfishermen, which also owns property on the barrier beach in Charlestown, to discuss concerns the conservation group has about vehicles on the barrier beach.
The town council later considered an ordinance change to expand the dates of the beach driving restrictions, but the plan was abandoned following outcry from beach access advocates and skepticism from some town council members.
People interested in the issue had considered it settled for the time being. Then photos surfaced this week of signs posted on Nope’s Island Conservation Association land implying visitors could face enforcement action.
Two signs photographed read:
“Sand Trail Ends
Private Property
No Vehicle Trespassing
Violators Will Be
Ticketed By Camera”
Allen, Charlestown’s administrator, said the signs do not belong to the town or state and Nope’s Island Conservation Association President Michael Sands has acknowledged that he placed them on Nope’s Island property.
Allen said the town does not plan to remove the signs. When it was pointed out to him that the signs could be read to suggest enforcement of trespass law, while Nope’s Island is assisting the town with enforcing an ordinance about driving on the beach face, Allen said, “Well, fine, then it’s not legally valid then. So what’s the problem?”
“What do you want me to say?” Allen said regarding the signs. “You want me to go down there and throw them away? I’m not throwing them away. It’s on private property. It’s on Nope’s Island property.”
Allen said he forwarded the information to CRMC in case the signs violate state regulations and CRMC is investigating the situation.
In a statement sent to The Public’s Radio, Sands, the Nope’s Island president, said his organization has “photographic resources and evidence of vehicles illegally trespassing on our property that we share with respective law enforcement officials. Those same photos may contain violations of Charlestown, CRMC and DEM laws at the same time. That is for the respective agencies to determine.”
The CRMC and DEM did not immediately respond when asked by email Friday morning if the agencies had received any video or other image evidence from Nope’s Island and acted on it.
Brown, of the ACLU, called the signs Nope’s Island put up on the barrier beach “completely inappropriate.”
“Private residents have no right to be putting up signs saying that people are going to be ticketed,” he said.
Keeley, the shoreline access advocate, said the signs and video surveillance will have the effect of scaring away people who have a right to visit the shore, which he believes is the intent of Nope’s Island.
“They’re getting a private beach for filming and turning people in,” Keeley said. “I’m surprised that the Charlestown police would support that. Maybe they just don’t understand its intent is to privatize the shore.”
