Police Chief: Six-Man Party Moves Mostly Indoors

The action on the beach for this year's Six-Man Tournament may have been more about the volleyball compared with recent years, but throughout downtown bars and homes it was still all about the booze.

"We accomplished exactly what we wanted on the beach itself," Manhattan Beach Police Chief Rod Uyeda said Monday. "The area that was rather disappointing to me was the amount of people that partied within the city itself."

Between 6 a.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, police made 30 arrests for public intoxication, drunk driving and other alcohol-related offenses, Uyeda said. In past years, his department has averaged between six and 10 arrests during the same time period. To enforce a new "No alcohol" policy, the police presence also increased significantly this year in the downtown district, bolstered by the hiring of private security.

"I think what occurred was that when people saw that they couldn't drink as freely on the beach, they left the event and had probably more parties at homes close to the event itself," he said. "That's where a lot of the intoxication occurred. We just clearly didn't have enough staffing to police all the parties around."

Uyeda estimated the crowd on the sand at about 30,000 people this year, compared with last year's beach attendance of nearly 40,000. He said he "couldn't be happier" about overall conditions at the event itself.

"I think all of the different changes that were made actually had the desired results to give people space to walk, reduce the amount of alcohol, and acutally watch the games during the peak times," he said.

"The event itself was spectacular," he added. "I heard a number of comments from residents that they were happy it was moving back toward more of a family event, like it was when it started."

So far, that has meant fewer angry calls from nearby residents and business owners.

"I think the surprising thing for me so far is that last year at this time we had dozens, dozens of complaints about unruly behavior within the street—people urinating on other people's property, people vomiting on other people's property," Uyeda said. "This year so far I've probably received maybe three or four complaints. So, I'm kind of waiting to see what will happen as the week progresses—you know, watch the letters to the editor."

Regarding the event's future, he added, "I suspect that we bought at least another year for the city of Manhattan Beach."