Miami Beach imposes a midnight spring break curfew starting Friday night

The city of Miami Beach imposed a midnight curfew Friday as officials look to shut down the spring break party ahead of a weekend that has brought large crowds and shootings to Ocean Drive in recent years.

The curfew will take effect Friday after 11:59 p.m. and apply to all areas south of 23rd Street, including the South Beach entertainment district between Fifth and 23rd streets along Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue and Washington Avenue. It will also apply Saturday and Sunday nights.

“People will be asked to immediately vacate the streets and return to their homes, hotels or other accommodations,” the city said in a press release.

The nightly curfew will be lifted at 6 a.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

City Manager Alina Hudak announced the curfew as part of a state of emergency that will run from 11:59 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday. The Miami Beach City Commission would need to vote to extend it.

Hudak signed the order declaring the curfew at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

“In consultation with our public safety leadership, we have determined that a midnight curfew is necessary and appropriate to assist in maintaining public safety on this Spring Break weekend,’’ Hudak said in a statement. “We did not make this decision lightly, but it should not come as a surprise. We have been very clear about our intent to protect the public from the dangerous mayhem that has accompanied Spring Break crowds in recent years.”

The city is also prohibiting alcohol sales for off-premises consumption after 6 p.m.

People won’t be allowed outside south of 23rd Street from midnight to 6 a.m. Violators could be arrested, the city said. The curfew won’t apply to emergency services, delivery services, people going to and from work, and residents and hotel guests requiring access to their homes and hotels.

All others must leave commercial businesses before midnight, the city said, adding that “businesses within the curfew area shall close sufficiently in advance of the curfew in order to permit patrons to avoid violating the curfew.”

This marks the fourth consecutive year in which city officials have declared a curfew in South Beach during spring break in March. In each of the past two years, a midnight curfew was announced following a pair of shootings on jam-packed Ocean Drive. In 2021, the city imposed an 8 p.m. curfew.

This year’s announcement differed in that it came despite no shootings or other major incidents of violence occurring.

The 2024 curfew has been expected since last year. Last March, the City Commission voted to signal support for a curfew the following year. And in late January, commissioners again voted to express support for a curfew but left Hudak to hash out the details and make the final decision.

Months ago, in October, the city sent letters to business owners south of 23rd Street warning them that a curfew may be implemented during spring break.

“The curfew has been endorsed for a year now with clear communication to businesses about its possibility,” City Commissioner Alex Fernandez said in a statement. “Our safety measures have been active since March 1, intensified for the second weekend, and now further strengthened, as expected, for the historically dangerous third weekend.”

The third weekend in March, Fernandez added, “has traditionally been a powder keg and we will not wait for it to explode.”

A host of other aggressive measures have been in place last weekend and this weekend to try to deter the large crowds of college students and young adults who flock to Ocean Drive and the surrounding area.

Most public parking garages and lots in South Beach are closed entirely, with an exception for city residents and workers in the area, while a garage on 42nd Street is charging $100 for out-of-towners. Beach entrances on Ocean Drive are closing at 6 p.m. Sidewalk seating on the strip has been removed. Slingshots and other motorized vehicle rentals are banned. And police are out in force, including with license plate readers expected to cause backups on the eastbound Julia Tuttle and MacArthur causeways and a DUI checkpoint on Fifth Street.

On the city’s website announcing spring break measures, officials have warned visitors to “expect curfews, security searches and bag checks at beach access points, early beach entrance closures, DUI checkpoints, bumper-to-bumper traffic, road closures and arrests for drug possession and violence.”

READ MORE: Miami Beach makes 11th-hour decision to close parking lots, garages during spring break

Enforcing spring break curfews in South Beach has proven difficult in the past. In 2021, police drove people off Ocean Drive to enforce an 8 p.m. curfew that had been announced just hours earlier, but crowds migrated west into residential neighborhoods. The use of SWAT teams and pepper balls to disperse crowds drew criticism from Black community leaders, who have raised concerns about police treatment of Black spring break visitors.

City officials are hoping that announcing their intentions ahead of time will result in smaller crowds and no violent incidents this year. Last weekend, South Beach was relatively calm, and officials said there were no major incidents related to spring break. The city hoped to deter college students and young adults from visiting by commissioning a now-viral video announcing Miami Beach was “breaking up with spring break.”

This weekend was expected to bring larger crowds, based on recent history and the number of colleges on spring break across the country.

For more details of the city’s spring break plans, go to miamibeachfl.gov/breakup.