{"id":195713,"date":"2026-03-18T01:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195713\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:12:14","slug":"chaos-in-florida-for-spring-break-as-takeovers-overwhelm-beaches-and-law-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195713\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaos in Florida for spring break as \u2018takeovers\u2019 overwhelm beaches and law enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

Thousands of spring breakers<\/a> are flocking to Florida\u2019s beaches<\/a> this month, prompting police to ramp up their operations and take action against so-called \u201ctakeover\u201d events.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Volusia County, Florida, are working to penalize social media users who promote large, unsanctioned spring break events sometimes referred to as \u201ctakeovers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Volusia County is likely to become the first in the state to implement financial penalties for these promoters, Sheriff Michael Chitwood told<\/a> reporters Tuesday. The county is home to popular spring break destinations<\/a> like Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to sue you civilly. We’re coming after every asset that you have. This goes to every promoter. You promote a truck event, you promote a takeover event, we are coming after you financially,\u201d Chitwood said.<\/p>\n

These events can \u201cendanger public safety,\u201d Chitwood explained.<\/p>\n

\"Thousands<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Thousands of spring breakers are flocking to beaches in Volusia County, Florida (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office)\"Body<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Body camera footage shared by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office showed crowds gathered for spring break celebrations last week (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a way to do business. Get permits. You do things the right way,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Authorities are also ordering a \u201cspecial event zone\u201d in the area from Friday at 11 a.m. until at least Sunday, which will allow officers to hand out higher traffic fines and other penalties, Chitwood announced.<\/p>\n

Tuesday marked the busiest day of spring break so far in New Smyrna Beach, according to the local police department.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are experiencing heavy traffic, large crowds of juveniles, and increased activity throughout the city, especially in beachside areas and along main roadways,\u201d the agency said. \u201cExpect delays, limited parking, and a high volume of pedestrians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police in Volusia County seized six weapons and arrested 133 people amid the spring break celebrations last weekend, Chitwood said<\/a> Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Volusia<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Volusia County police arrested 133 people in spring break crowds over the weekend (New Smyrna Beach Police Department)\"Crowds<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Crowds gather on New Smyrna Beach for spring break celebrations (New Smyrna Beach Police Department)<\/p>\n

The sheriff also addressed social media rumors about a shooting on Daytona Beach over the weekend, which he called \u201cabsolute bulls***.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were zero gunshots on the beach, because what they were doing was crushing a water bottle to make it sound like a gunshot to stampede the crowd,\u201d Chitwood said.<\/p>\n

Video shared by the sheriff\u2019s office showed a large crowd of people running on the beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was out there, the chief was out there. We were in the middle of it. People might not want to hear this, but everybody who we came in contact with was absolutely polite,\u201d Chitwood continued.<\/p>\n

The sheriff said he\u2019s proud of his deputies for the work they carried out over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe arrested people from Alabama, from Georgia, from North Carolina, from South Carolina, from Florida, you name it. Everybody was here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd again, like I said, everybody we encountered \u2014 we made an arrest in a crowd of 1,000 people, nobody said anything. They let us do our job. And when we told people to move on, they moved on,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-195713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}