Park Police Denies Arrests At Plumb Beach

In comments to Courier-Life reporters, a spokesperson for Gateway National Park said that the United Stated Park Police did not arrest anywhere near the number alleged by a law student working on the case. According to the student’s allegations, 76 arrests were made on Plumb Beach in August 2009 as part of sting operations to net perpetrators of supposed illicit sexual behavior. But reports in GerritsenBeach.net and from Gene Berardelli during a Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association meeting suggested that the stings became increasingly messy with fishermen and others being swept up. According to a Courier-Life report, only around 17 arrests were made by the Park Police during August in plainclothes operations. “They (USPP) do standard undercover operations, but there was no massive stings or anything like that,” Gateway National Park spokesperson Jane Ahern told Courier-Life. “We do close the rest area at 10 p.m. and open at 6 a.m., and everybody after those hours would be loitering, but there was no sting operation.”