CLEARWATER, Fla. — Your favorite Clearwater beach bar may stop serving alcohol a little earlier.
On Thursday, the Clearwater City Council is considering bumping up serving time from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m. after police noticed a startling trend.
"The number of fights in Clearwater Beach is higher than the entire District 3 which is a large area," Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter said. He started to notice a trend even before the coronavirus pandemic began.
"What we found is that anywhere else in the city, the calls for police after midnight dropped off. But on Clearwater Beach they would stay steady until 3 a.m." he said. They noticed this after reviewing data from August 2017 through September 2020. And most of those calls involved fights and alcohol consumption.
So they came up with a potential solution: "Tomorrow the city council will discuss the change of serving hours from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m. and that would just reduce the hours that alcohol can be served, places can still serve food," Slaughter said.
The change would apply to Clearwater Beach, Sand Key and Island Estates, not the rest of the city, and would only impact a total of 13 bars.
"It's a process to make the change and tomorrow is just the first reading to decide if they want to move forward to the second reading of the ordinance," Slaughter said. The city council may also consider working with those few bars first to see if they can curb the problem before having to pass this new rule.
"I think we need to look at the long game here. We don't want the beach to turn into a non-family friendly location and only be a party atmosphere. Our residents and tourists love our beach and we just want to maintain an atmosphere that everyone can enjoy," Slaughter said.
The Clearwater City Council will discuss the matter at their meeting on Thursday.
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