VIRGINIA BEACH Va. (WAVY) — City officials say they are ready for this year’s College Beach Weekend.
“Any sort of violence in the city is concerning to the leadership,” said Virginia Beach Deputy City Manager Steve Cover.
This year the city has done more outreach to both the college students and the community.
“I’ve think we’ve done a good job in trying to communicate a good message to folks that are coming in to our city,” Cover added.
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College Beach Weekend is not a city-sanctioned event and word spreads about the event through social media posts.
City officials say they can’t stop people from coming to the beach.
“Not only have we worked in the communications area, we’ve worked in the pubic safety area,” Cover said. “We’ve done a lot of outreach to the business community.”
In past years there have been crowds of 40,000. There have been fights, stabbings and shootings.
City officials released arrest numbers for the last four years during beach weekend. Last year 191 people were arrested.
City officials say they will use updated camera equipment and drones to keep an eye on the growing crowd.
“We want them to come here and we went them to enjoy themselves,” Cover added. “We want them to have good time. We want them to be safe and we want them to respect each other and respect our city.”