MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Thousands continued to celebrate at the beach during Memorial Day weekend and Urban Beach Week, Monday.
The holiday weekend also coincides with Urban Beach Week, where clubs, bars and restaurants host parties and rap concerts along South Beach.
Tens of thousands of visitors attend the events every year, which led to an increase in police presence. “I think it’s going to be a bad one,” said Brent Mason, who’s visiting from Australia. “For sure, I think the police are gonna have a hard time.”
Law enforcement officials took extra steps to keep everyone safe this year, including assigning extra uniformed and undercover officers. “Our officers are out here not only in uniform patrol, but we have undercover officers,” said Miami Beach Police Officer Ernesto Rodriguez. “We don’t want anyone to break the law — things like narcotics, things like drinking in public — anything like that.”
The turnout is expected to be larger this year, officials said. Police cracked down on Miami Beach, making 153 citywide arrests since Thursday. This number more than doubles the 66 arrests made through all of last year’s urban beach weekend.
According to officials, there were 200 arrests made during last year’s Memorial Day weekend in Miami.
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