Vancouver police beach sweeps prompt exchange between councillor, deputy chief

If you’ve ever caught a sunset from the beach at English Bay, you know it’s a Vancouver highlight, but some sight-seers are upset at being swept out of the park by police at 10 p.m. over the weekend, and one city councillor is suggesting the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is being heavy-handed.

A 10 p.m. beach sweep Saturday has prompted chatter on social media, with some suggesting police cracking down on closing time is happening more frequently at English Bay.

“It’s absolutely wild we’ve let VPD ban watching the sunset, something the city is literally known for and is a major tourism Top 10,” said one X user, who has attracted hundreds of thousands of views.

“… and it’s not a one-off. Did VPD decide unilaterally that folks sitting on a beach was the biggest threat to public order on a Saturday night that it required a gaggle of officers to be pulled off other duties?”

Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry seems to echo those sentiments in a reply to the post.

“Hopefully, City’s rep on Police Board @KenSimCity has comments on this operational decision. When we approved $.5m in additional police funding last month to facilitate ‘drinking on beach pilot’ – mass sweeps to deny sunset viewers wasn’t the articulated goal,” he responded.

In an interview with CityNews, Fry said he fully supports the Vancouver Police Department in its efforts to prevent rowdy partying and disruptive or violent behaviour.

“It’s their role and what we expect of them, but I am concerned that this might be just a little bit more proactive,” he said Monday night.

“It wasn’t what were led to believe we were voting for on May 7 when we allocated additional funding for policing on the beach to support the ‘alcohol on beaches’ pilot. The expectation was that the policing was there to control rowdy behaviours and deal with drunks and violence and that kind of thing, not to just sweep regular Vancouverites off the beach while they’re watching a sunset.”

VPD Deputy Chief Howard Chow has responded, saying the image circulating of officers clearing the beach needs to be put into context.

“All for having a drink/enjoying the beaches, but public safety has to come first,” he replied on X.

He adds that all city parks and beaches close at 10 p.m. and that police have assisted park rangers in closing English Bay beach for years to help cut down on complaints about “noise, drunks, fights, etc.”

Chow says officers were called to a brawl last month involving more than 40 people where one person was stabbed, and the VPD responded to more than 300 calls at English Bay in the summer of 2023, including multiple weapons calls, involving “heaps of open drinking/intoxicated young people.”