Lunada Bay To Be Turned Into A Surveillance State

Closing out a year full of confrontational controversy at Lunada Bay, the city of Palos Verdes is heading into 2017 with an even more drastic game plan to thwart the aggressive antics of everyone’s ironically-favorite notorious surf gang, the Lunada Bay Boys. In addition to a further increase in law enforcement patrols, park rangers from the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy are scheduled to begin patrolling Lunada Bay in the next coming days. While specific negotiations are still in the works, Palos Verdes city officials have so far allocated $50,000 for these extra patrols and are the first city officials to contract an outside agency for a security job of this kind.

More notable, however, is that the city has also expressed interest in several other more severe preventative measures to oppose the pesky white-collar surf gang, including: a police surveillance camera on the bluff, boat patrols from the Sheriff’s Department and even a designated drone to watch over the bay (the looky-looky kind, not the shooty-shooty kind). 

Details of these proposals are scarce, “The problem is there’s lots of technology on the marketplace, and it takes a little time to process through what solution best fits our needs,” Palos Verdes Estates Police Chief Jeff Kepley told Long Beach Press-Telegram last week, “We’re looking to start as soon as we can.”

This won’t be the first time recording equipment will have been installed in Lunada Bay. In 2002, a Surfline camera was installed on the Bluff Cove home of then-Police Chief Timm Browne. Three months after the camera went up, however, the City Council voted to take it down amid vehement opposition from residents who apparently were threatened via strongly worded pamphlets distributed throughout the community by Lunada Bay Boy gang members. 

It’s hard to say if the increased surveillance presence will have a lasting effect on the gang. One thing is for sure, though, there will be a lot more eyes on the lineup now, more than ever.