From Cocoa Beach Police Chief
The City of Cocoa Beach is truly a wonderful place to both live and vacation. As a tourist destination, our small town has approximately 2 1/2 million visitors a year while just under 11,500 residents reside here year around. On a normal weekend our numbers swell to two to three times our residential numbers and on a Memorial Day weekend our population can grow even larger than that. It is for this reason that we have a special event ordinance that establishes requirements and safeguards for event organizers that choose Cocoa Beach as their destination of choice to bring people into our community. To protect the public, both residents and visitors alike, the City has to ensure that it has the proper infrastructure in place, primarily from a public safety perspective, before a special event takes place.
The City has successfully been the venue for numerous successful special events such as Thunder on the Beach, Surfing Santas, Cocoa Beach Air Show, and many smaller events. The planning for those events takes weeks or months, depending upon the complexities of the event, to ensure appropriate police, EMT, traffic, trash removal, port a potties, and other necessary services and preparations for a successful and safe event. Following the City’s application process and procedures is required before a special event can be allowed to take place in the City.
Yesterday our department became aware that a special event (anticipated to bring 5,000 to 10,000 people into the City) was scheduled for a specific location in the City. We contacted the owner of that location and learned that they knew nothing of the event, and that they strenuously objected to their venue being targeted for an unpermitted event.
This event organizer has chosen to subvert the City’s rules, apparently on purpose and announce a location for the event on property that has not given permission for the event, all the while apparently charging for access to information about the event. The business owning the targeted location has not given permission for their name, image, or likeness to be used in any form or fashion as a destination for this event, and the business has had its lawyers send a Cease and Desist Letter to the promoter. Similarly, the City has sent the promoter a Cease and Desist Letter demanding that the unpermitted event be cancelled.
It is true that the police department has received intelligence from outside agencies as to bad past behaviors and actions that have occurred congruent with this event put on by this promoter in years past. Yet still, all the City asks any event organizer to do is follow the rules. Those who choose to not follow the rules set in place by City ordinance, and attempt to subvert the rule of law, will be held accountable, and their behavior will not be tolerated.
