Sacramento officials say holiday alcohol ban is effective: Labor Day citations keep rising
This Labor Day, the holiday alcohol ban on Sacramento’s shores and rivers celebrated its 13th anniversary.
Rangers issued 56 citations and fines over the three-day Labor Day weekend in parks and on the alcohol-free stretch of the American River between Hazel and Watt avenues, according to spokesperson Ken Casparis.
Sacramento County Park Rangers say the ban has been a success, preventing recreational drownings and averting drunken brawls. The ban, a Sacramento County Park ordinance, has been around since 2006, according to Casparis. However, the ban’s enforcement has intensified in recent years, since a Facebook “Rafting Gone Wild” event on Gilligan’s Island – a small patch of land across from Ancil Hoffman Park – went too far by openly promoting a big party on the river.
Regional Parks public data shows the numbers of citations issued over the months of August and September have grown more than six times since 2014.
“After the first ‘Rafting Gone Wild’ event came in, the parks director said ‘No more drinking on holidays’,” said Park Ranger Assistant Carlos Cueva, stationed Monday at Sunrise Recreation Area, a rafter-heavy traffic area in Rancho Cordova just a mile north of Glligan’s Island. “But people still drink around here and many are upset at the ban.”
Cueva said every Labor Day weekend, at Sunrise Recreation Area alone, rangers arrest 10 to 20 people a day for alcohol-related infractions. One year, he said, they took in several rafters that were not only drunk, but they threw rocks at law enforcement to protest the ban.
“I still find beer bottles and beer cans,” said Craig Mieras, a park visitor Monday, “but hopefully (the ban) helps. Hopefully no one drowns because they’re drunk.”
Mieras didn’t notice intensified police activity on Labor Day, but said he expected rangers to be hiding behind the vegetation and being “sly” to catch transgressors.
Several groups enjoyed cold beer on the shores of Sunrise Recreation on Monday. Some told The Bee they didn’t know there was a ban in place, in spite of many signs warning against alcohol consumption.
Two young men fishing and openly drinking alcohol at Sunrise Recreation said they were not concerned about the ban, as the rangers driving by the area on dirt bikes only cited individuals who caused turmoil or were at risk of drowning.
Six miles southwest of the recreation area, at River Bend Park, some carried covered alcohol, but visitors seemed more prone to follow the law, most of them in the company of young children.
However, Casparis said the ordinance has toned down the holiday’s character from a “national holiday of drinking,” as one Rafting Gone Wild attendee described it to The Bee in 2015, to “one of Sacramento’s calmer weekends,” according to Casparis.
The change was possible in part thanks to the assistance of the Sacramento Police Department Marine Unit, which has patrolled the rivers offshore since 2017 and shares credit with the rangers for keeping the past two summers recreational-drowning free.
Casparis said no rescues were even necessary, due to the alcohol ban, as well as the department’s hands-on enforcement of the life-vest requirement for children below the age of 13.
The California Highway Patrol was also on high alert over the weekend to ensure the safety of those traveling in the area, and said units across California made 1,078 DUI arrests over Labor Day weekend.
This story was originally published September 4, 2019 at 7:34 AM.