January 23, 2025
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Wildwood officials are making security enchancements along the Jersey Shore community's famed boardwalk this summer. The upgrades include new surveillance cameras, lighting and safety barriers to block unauthorized cars from accessing the boardwalk.
Wildwood plans to upgrade the security along the shore town's boardwalk in the coming months, citing the need to protect the public from crime and terrorism, officials said Wednesday.
The new safety initiative includes installing barriers – called bollards – that will block cars from entering the boardwalk. Bollards typically look like short posts above the ground, but buried beneath the surface. Each has a large base that anchors it and prevents vehicles from driving into pedestrian areas. Wildwood officials said in a news release that these will "protect against accidental or intentional vehicle-ramming attacks."
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The city also has added new lighting along the boardwalk from 26th Street to Burk Avenue, near the Wildwoods Convention Center, and placed new surveillance cameras at locations along that stretch.
The upgrades were planned with help from Wildwood Police and New Jersey State Police, who conducted threat assessments of the city's boardwalk infrastructure, Wildwood Deputy Mayor Steve Mikulski said.
"While we acknowledge that vulnerabilities cannot be completely eliminated, these targeted enhancements are designed to significantly deter potential threats and mitigate the impact of any incidents," Mikulski said.
The city did not mention specific threats that prompted the security plan, which is being funded partly by Wildwood with additional state and county resources. Last year, Wildwood installed the first of the bollards at boardwalk entrances on Maple and Spicer avenues. They will be added to Bennett, Roberts, Wildwood and Lincoln avenues by the summer and fall.
Some of the new bollards will be fixed in place, while others will be removable, officials said.
The full Wildwood Boardwalk runs 38 blocks – about 2 1/2 miles – from Cresse Avenue in Wildwood Crest to 16th Avenue in North Wildwood. The new security measures are along the stretch of the boardwalk in the city of Wildwood. Last year, the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority reported a record $374 million in tourism revenue between January and August.
In recent years, Wildwood has made several changes to address public safety concerns. To prevent teens from carrying alcohol and other illegal items, last year Wildwood banned backpacks on the boardwalk at night during the summer months (Ocean City and Sea Isle City both enacted similar measures). In 2023, the shore town enacted a curfew for minors from midnight to 6 a.m. and banned alcohol on its beaches and boardwalk.
Wildwood officials declared a state of emergency last Memorial Day due to "civil unrest" that officials said was driven by crowds of young people. The city brought in police from other communities to help respond to a spike in calls for service. Crowds of young people disrupted the holiday weekend in Ocean City, too, where a 15-year-old boy was stabbed during a fight on the boardwalk.
In September 2022 in Wildwood, during the unsanctioned H2oi car rally, two people were killed when a driver struck another car and two pedestrians two blocks from the boardwalk. That event had attracted 500 vehicles to the city and was plagued with other problem behavior by some participants. For years, the same rally occurred in Ocean City, Maryland, where leaders created a task force to address unruly behavior related to the event. That city installed bollards at dozens of boardwalk entrances in 2021 to protect against potential vehicle-ramming attacks.
In addition to the security upgrades, Wildwood has spent the past two years rehabilitating and reconstructing sections of the boardwalk that needed renovations.
