Balancing Education, Enforcement For Compliance

An education phase is oftentimes required when major changes, such as the smoking ban on the Boardwalk, are enacted, but levying a serious consequence when those changes are not adhered to is equally important.

That’s the case in Ocean City with the outright smoking ban on the Boardwalk and the law to smoke in designated areas on the beach. In some cases, visitors are unaware smoking is no longer allowed on the boards and are oblivious to any sort of changes on the beach, despite signage and a visible receptacle. They come to Ocean City once or twice a year, enjoy it and don’t pay attention to what happens here the other 50 weeks of the year. While on vacation, they also are not paying attention to signs and other efforts to inform them of recent changes.

Although they face an uphill battle, given the sheer volume of new visitors to Ocean City every day, education and outreach followed by enforcement must continue to be a major part of the effort to reduce smoking on the beach and prohibit it on the Boardwalk.

This is a difficult job the Ocean City Police Department faces because officers have to determine whether the violators are knowingly breaking the law or lying when they maintain they are uninformed. There has to come a time when enough is enough with blatant violators. Unfortunately, a case-by-case approach is the best bet.

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